A fire broke out at the Holy Transfiguration Valaam Monastery yesterday. It destroyed a garage with cars and other equipment, but thankfully, there were no casualties.
The fire that raged for 16 hours was successfully extinguished by local firefighters, the monastery’s voluntary firefighters, and reinforcements from nearby Sortavala, His Grace Bishop Pankraty of Troitsk, Abbot of the monastery, wrote on his Telegram channel.
His Grace Bishop Pankraty also uploaded a video of the fire:
The firefighters risked their lives to remove gas tanks from the burning garage, the abbot reported.
His Grace Bishop Pankraty earlier wrote that it was very important to prevent the fire from spreading to the neighboring building, the Water House, which is an object of cultural heritage.