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Fire Kills 63 in S. Russian Senior Citizens' Home
A fire in a senior citizens' home in Kamyshevatskaya, outside Eisk, Krasnodar Territory, killed 63 and injured 33. There were 93 people in the building at the time of the fire. The dormitory of the complex burned to the ground., destroying about 1000 sq. m., according to the Southern Regional Center of the Emergencies Ministry. The blaze began at about 1:30 a.m. Moscow time. Its cause is under investigation.
Medical facilities have been burning with increasing frequency in Russia. A series of fires took the lives of 60 people in December. Three of those fires occurred in different regions in the space of a single day. The first occurred on December 9, 2006, at a shelter for psychologically disturbed children in Troyanovo, Tver Region. Thanks to the rapid reaction of the staff, more than 300 people were evacuated and no one was injured.
That evening, at 10:00 p.m. Moscow time, a fire broke out in a psychiatric clinic in Taiga, Kemerovo Region. There were 242 people in the two-story building at the time it caught fire, including seven staff members. Nine people died in the fire and 16 were injured. Investigators say that the fire may have been an act of arson.
That night, a fire broke out at the Narcological Hospital No. 17 on Bolotnikovskaya St. in southwestern Moscow. Forty-five people were killed in that fire. All the victims were women, two of whom were staff members. Eight people were injured. Emergency Ministry spokesmen said that the scale of the tragedy was largely due to the inadequate response of the hospital staff.
The fire was reported only 20 minutes after it began. Hospital staff were unable to open the bars on the windows even though they had the keys for them. Consequently, patients were trapped in their wards and died of smoke inhalation. The cause of that fire was arson.
After those fires, the Prosecutor General's Office ordered the Emergencies Ministry to make a fire-safety check of all closed medical facilities. The ministry found violations in 63 psychiatric and drug-rehabilitative facilities housing patients.
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Photo: Александр Чиженок