Fire claims lives of Defense Ministry pilot and his family in Balkhash

KARAGANDA. KAZINFORM - A married couple and their 2-year-old son became victims of the fire that started one floor down in the town of Balkhash in Karaganda region, Kazinform correspondent reports.

The apartment fire that started on the first floor claimed lives of the owner of the apartment as well as the family that lived on the second floor. The man, his wife and their little son sustained carbon monoxide poisoning while sleeping.

The man turned out to be the pilot of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerkyn Uderbayev.

"It is with great sadness that we found out that our colleague and his family died as a result of the accident. Yerkyn Uderbayev was a pilot, He was only 33," Bakhyt Dzhumanov, the commanding officer of the military unit where Uderbayev served, revealed.

The Uderbayevs will be laid to rest in Aktobe.

The cause of the fire is to be determined.