MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin easily won a second term in elections Sunday with 69 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll, confirming widespread expectations of a landslide victory. Just minutes after polls closed, a huge fire erupted in a 19th-century landmark building off Red Square, and two firefighters were killed.
Within an hour after the fire broke out, about half the 48,000-square-foot structure was in flames and part of the roof had collapsed, news reports said. Flames shot high into the nighttime sky and thick, gray smoke billowed over the Kremlin towers.
The two firefighters who died were in the building's attic when it fell in, the ITAR-Tass news agency said, citing city fire service spokesman Yevgeny Bobylev. A third firefighter was injured inhaling poisonous fumes, said Viktor Beltsov, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry.
Moscow emergency officials said they did not know what caused the fire, which apparently started on the intricately designed roof. They said the blaze was ranked in the most serious category.
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