Moscow  - A fire in a dilapidated wooden building in southern Russia killed at least 16 persons, with the blame being quickly placed on a drunken woman resident, the Interfax agency reported Sunday, citing investigators.

The fire occurred late Saturday in a village near the Volga River city of Astrakhan. Around 50 residents were rescued and were given shelter in a school.

Officials investigating the accident were blaming a woman, 35, who had stored several petrol cannisters in her apartment, where the fire started. It quickly engulfed the three-storey building, which completely burned down in only 15 minutes.

The building, with faulty electrical wiring and inadequate fire protection equipment, had been declared unsafe for residents, who had been urged to look for housing elsewhere.

Authorities were planning another inspection of the building in March.

The accident follows on a fire in a nursing home in the semi- autonomous republic of Komi at the end of January which claimed 24 lives.

Russia repeatedly witnesses such devastating fires, with high casualty figures, due to people ignoring the most basic safety rules. Fires occur particularly in the winter months when residents are heating their homes, with several thousand people killed each year. dpa