Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries said Thursday that law enforcement officers were carrying out searches at its Moscow headquarters, just days after a fire destroyed its warehouse in St. Petersburg.
On Saturday, a fire covering some 70,000 square meters ripped through a Wildberries warehouse on the south side of St. Petersburg, destroying an estimated 17 billion rubles ($191 million) worth of goods and company property, or around 1% of the retailer's turnover.
No one was reported injured in the blaze, which took firefighters more than 30 hours to extinguish.
“Law enforcement agencies are [searching]... the Wildberries office in Moscow today in connection with the fire at the warehouse in Shushary,” Wildberries’ press office said on the messaging app Telegram, referring to the location of the St. Petersburg warehouse.
The company said it was cooperating with investigators and was interested in establishing the causes of the fire “as soon as possible.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, opened a criminal investigation into the fire over the weekend.
The RBC news website, quoting an anonymous source familiar with the investigation, reported Thursday that “all Wildberries facilities are undergoing fire safety inspections, including corporate offices.”
“Security systems and documents for all facilities are being checked,” RBC quoted its source as saying.
Wildberries’ press service said its operations were not impacted by the police searches.
According to the investigative news outlet Agentstvo, the company's warehouse in St. Petersburg had allegedly operated illegally for nearly two years due to ambiguity over building inspection certificates.
The Moscow Times could not confirm the report.
