‘Half-measures’ prove deadly: Fire at Russian mental hospital leaves 23 patients dead
Federal investigators point to 11 major fatal fires since 2005 in homes for the aged, disabled and mentally ill across Russia.
A fire swept through a Russian home for people with mental illnesses, killing 23 patients and injuring another 23, many of whom were unable to walk, the emergency services said on Sunday.
The remaining 24 patients were safely evacuated, including some who had to be carried out of the building, and the four medical personnel working at the home were unhurt, they said.
The fire caused some outrage in Russia because it followed two similar fires in 2013 that took the lives of 75 people. After those fires, the government had promised to improve fire safety at institutions for psychiatric patients.
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of this weekend’s fire, which broke out late on Saturday in Alferovka, a village in the Voronezh region about 600km south of Moscow. The fire in the one-storey brick building was extinguished shortly after 3am on Sunday.
The mass death of socially vulnerable people occurs each time for the same reason: a lack of funding, dilapidated buildings and too few personnel
The fire started in a section of the home dedicated to patients who were unable to walk, emergency services official Igor Kobzev said on Russian state television. He said 39 of the patients in the home could not walk.
