During a severe fire in a psychiatric facility in northwest Russia, 37 people have been killed. This informed the Commission of Inquiry on Friday. The fire broke out at night in a hospital in the city of Malaya Wischera in the western Russian region of Novgorod.
Investigators suspect that the fire was caused by a patient during the night. He should be careless with fire and have handled so kindled his bed, reports the news agency Interfax.
At the time of the fire, 59 patients and a caregiver should have been in the flat wooden building, said the governor area.
The evacuation of the facility was very difficult because many patients are bedridden and visually impaired, the doctor said Igor Bulanov. Some patients were anesthetized by drugs. Among the dead, a nurse should be, who had tried to save patients.
Some patients might have escaped through the unbarred window and still keep hidden in a nearby forest. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev sent an expert to the accident site.
Fire safety deficiencies complained
It is the second fatal fire in a Russian psychiatry this year. Only in April, 38 people were killed in a fire at a facility near Moscow.
Again and again it comes to serious fires in Russia. According to Russia’s civil protection 11,630 people died in fires in 2012. Are often cause deficiencies in building safety and fire protection.
This could be the case this time. Said Alexander Starostin of the fire station, the building was only inadequately protected against fire. The authorities have repeatedly complained deficiencies and recommended a move to a modern clinic.
The worst fire disaster occurred in 2009 in Perm. At that time, more than a hundred people died in a burning nightclub. Often closed nursing homes are affected. 2007 called for a fire in a nursing home in southern Russia killed 63, 2009 a fire in a nursing home in the Komi Republic 25 victims.
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