A fire at a drug treatment center in southern Kazakhstan killed 38 people early Sunday, officials said. The blaze broke out at about 5:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT) and spread over an area of 7,000 square feet (650 square meters) in Taldykorgan in the Central Asian nation's south, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. Emergency workers evacuated 40 people from the building during the fire, the ministry said. The cause of the blaze was not yet clear. Prime Minister Karim Masimov demanded the creation of a special committee to investigate the incident, RIA-Novosti news agency cited a government spokesman as saying. Deputy Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov will travel to the site of the fire Sunday, it said.
