According to the reports, cryptocurrency mining suspected fire and destroyed eight top floor flats and flooded as more number of firefighters tackled the flames.

A residential building in Artem near Vladivostok in the Primorsky region, Russia went into flames as a result of massive power surge which caused overheating of circuits as the resident was mining cryptocurrency. The fire destroyed a total of 5,400 square feet of the building.

Firefighters finally stopped the fire, but pictures showing burned remains of mining equipment emerged.

‘We have spotted something which looks like mining equipment,’ said a spokesman for the local division of the Emergencies Ministry.

The fire went on for more than half an hour according to Roman Vislobokov, a resident who survived the fire. He told The Siberian Times their apartment was across the wall from the fire. However, there were no casualties.

“We survived by a miracle…at about 2 am my girlfriend woke me with hallucinations from carbon monoxide gas. By that time there was no electricity. In the smoke and darkness, we grabbed our passports, took the dog, put on our shoes and jackets – and ran”.

Many other apartments were flooded with water as firefighters controlled the fire.

Russia has many miners, and this is partly due to cheap electricity. This is to the extent of miners mining cryptocurrencies in the residential blocks. In some cases, they break into power supplies to obtain free power and firefighters warn that this overheats circuits.

FSB secret service also detained two engineers who were using government’s supercomputers to mine Bitcoins. This took place at a nuclear town Sarov.

‘They were about to get some bitcoins when FSB officers intervened and shut down this illegal farm,’ according to one report.

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