Russian house fire kills five

KOSTROMA, Russia, March 3 (UPI) -- Two adults and three children died in a house fire early Sunday in Russia's Chelyabinsk region, the Emergencies Ministry said.

The fire broke out in a single-story private house in the city of Kartaly, RIA Novosti reported. The identities of the dead were not immediately released.

In a separate incident, firefighters evacuated 17 people from a residential building that was ablaze early Sunday in the Kostroma region of central Russia, officials said. Two people who lived in the building were not accounted for, officials said.

More than 115,000 house fires across Russia last year caused 7,700 deaths and about $3.3 billion in damages, the news agency said.