Fire tore through a retirement home in central Russia, killing 30 people while two others are still missing, a senior local official was quoted as saying on Monday.
”We found 30 bodies out of the 32 people missing,” regional official Guennady Chemodanov said via telephone. ”Among the dead, seven have been identified. We are pursuing an investigation.”
The home near the city of Tula did not have basic safety equipment and police have started a criminal investigation into the latest in a series of fire disasters in Russia, according to officials quoted by Russian news agencies.
The fire broke out on Sunday in Velye Nikolskoye, a village 30km outside Tula, regional deputy governor Alexei Korablyov said, Itar-Tass reported.
More than 100 firefighters and 22 vehicles were sent to the blaze, where 293 people, including 17 nurses, were evacuated, Interfax news agency quoted the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying.
Viktor Beltsov, an official with the ministry, told Echo of Moscow radio station that flames had spread quickly through the 1950s-era building, which had wooden beams and no fire alarm.
According to Beltsov, authorities had tried to shut down the home after serious violations, including the lack of an alarm system, were discovered during three safety inspections over the past 12 months. ”However, the court did not support that decision,” he said.
RIA Novosti news agency quoted a law-enforcement source saying that an electrical short circuit started the blaze.
Police announced a criminal investigation into violation of fire-safety procedures, news agencies reported.
Beltsov told Interfax that more people could have been saved if the fire services had been called earlier. ”The reason for mass death of people in the old people’s home in Tula region was the delayed raising of the alarm,” he said.
The deadly blaze was only the latest of a series in Russia, where accidents often end tragically due to poor safety procedures and infrastructure.
In December last year, a fire in a Moscow drug rehabilitation clinic killed 45 women. Many of the victims were trapped by metal bars on the windows that staff could not open and an emergency exit was boarded up.
In March, a fire at a nursing home in southern Russia killed 63 people. The blaze was blamed on violations of fire-safety regulations and the lack of a nearby fire station.
Ten people were killed in June in a suspected arson attack on a retirement home in the Omsk region in Siberia. — Sapa-AFP