More than a million years ago, man produced fire, and this event became a turning point in human evolution. It was used and is still used to this day for cooking, lighting and heat.

But, in the blink of an eye, fire can become an enemy for a person, because he is able to destroy absolutely everything in his path.

In 2010, peat fires broke out in Russia due to abnormal heat and lack of precipitation. They covered more than 200 thousand hectares of land. The first cause of these fires, as mentioned earlier, were weather conditions, the second reason is the weak work of the state forest protection and the actual homelessness of large areas of the forest.

On July 29, 2010, in the Lukhovitsky district of the Moscow region, near the working village of Beloomut, the village of Mokhovoye burned down in a riding fire. The settlement burned down in 15-30 minutes (the data varies depending on the sources).

The village of Mokhovoye was located among forests, but as a result of the fire, the area around changed dramatically, turning into wastelands. The inhabitants of the settlement were engaged in logging and peat extraction. On that fateful day, 15 people died - two of them firefighters and one mechanic.

In a matter of seconds, a fiery tornado formed around the village, a strong gust of wind rushed to Mokhovoye. At that time, more than 200 people lived in the settlement. People in a panic tried to escape.

Three people ran towards the forest and burned alive. The same fate overtook those who tried to escape in the cellars, among them two disabled people - a recumbent grandmother and a man without a leg.

Horrific details of the fire immediately appeared on the Internet. According to eyewitnesses, no one extinguished the village, and the administration said "Cope on your own." The fire station in Beloomut was equipped with only two cars.

Now on the site of the Moss ashes - two- and three-storey houses, a kindergarten and a house of culture have survived.

Residents who managed to escape were placed in the dormitory of vocational school No. 23, which they had to leave two weeks later and move to apartments on the territory of the nearest military unit.

In record time, a residential district for the victims of the fire was built, called the New One. It houses 152 single-storey houses. Moss is not subject to restoration. What the fire spared was stolen by people.

But even now there are traces of the past in the face of scattered things, books and children's toys.

After the tragedy in Mokhovoye, an inspection was carried out and a criminal case was initiated under part 3 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (negligence) on the fact of failure to take measures to organize fire safety by officials of the administration of the Lukhovitsky district of the Moscow region.