Fire in mountainous Caucasian village destroys 50 houses

"Efforts to stop the spread of the fire haven't produced any result so far," a source at the department told Itar-Tass. "Crews of firefighters from five neighboring districts and the local population have joined the firefighting efforts."

The village of Anchikh is located in western Dagestan.

Unlike in most other parts of Russia, this incident is not a wildfire and is not linked to weather in any way, the source said.

An initial version of the emergency says the fire was caused of short circuit in one of the houses.

The scale of the fire is explained for by the specificity of architectural styles in the highland parts of Dagestan where houses are mostly perched on the hillsides and the roof of one house serves as an open air floor of vestibule of another house, or in other words, a house hovers over other houses, Kazinform refers to ITAR-TASS.

See www.itar-tass.com