Russian nursing home fire blamed on suicide
Source: Agencies |
August 31, 2010, Tuesday
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A BLAZE that killed nine people at a Russian nursing home early yesterday apparently started when an elderly resident doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire, investigators said.
Daria Korovina, a spokeswoman for the regional Emergencies Ministry, said two other people were injured in the fire at the facility in Vishny Volochek in the Tver region, about 200 kilometers north of Moscow. Some 480 people were evacuated, she said.
The prosecutor-general's Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, said preliminary inspection showed that an 86-year-old resident of the facility committed suicide by self-immolation, starting a blaze that killed eight people in neighboring rooms from smoke and gas inhalation.
The state news agency ITAR-Tass reported the man was believed to be upset about being unable to obtain an apartment of his own, which he had sought under a program providing housing for World War II veterans.
Also yesterday, a fire of uncertain cause broke out in a wooden building that is part of a halfway-house complex for the mentally ill in the Ulyanovsk region, 500 kilometer southeast of Moscow, but there were no injuries, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia suffers frequent fires at hospitals, schools and other state-run facilities. Many have been blamed on negligence and violations of fire safety rules. They have served as grim reminders of crumbling infrastructure in Russia.
However, the head of the Emergencies Ministry's supervision department, Yuri Deshevykh, was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying the nursing home's fire-alarm system, installed this year, had functioned properly. The Investigative Committee said the seven-story brick building was constructed in 1988.
Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.
In January 2009, a nursing home fire in the Komi region of Russia's northwest killed 23 residents. A November 2007 fire caused by a short circuit killed 32 patients in a nursing home in the Tula region south of Moscow.
In March 2007, 62 people died in a fire in another nursing home in southern Russia.
Daria Korovina, a spokeswoman for the regional Emergencies Ministry, said two other people were injured in the fire at the facility in Vishny Volochek in the Tver region, about 200 kilometers north of Moscow. Some 480 people were evacuated, she said.
The prosecutor-general's Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, said preliminary inspection showed that an 86-year-old resident of the facility committed suicide by self-immolation, starting a blaze that killed eight people in neighboring rooms from smoke and gas inhalation.
The state news agency ITAR-Tass reported the man was believed to be upset about being unable to obtain an apartment of his own, which he had sought under a program providing housing for World War II veterans.
Also yesterday, a fire of uncertain cause broke out in a wooden building that is part of a halfway-house complex for the mentally ill in the Ulyanovsk region, 500 kilometer southeast of Moscow, but there were no injuries, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia suffers frequent fires at hospitals, schools and other state-run facilities. Many have been blamed on negligence and violations of fire safety rules. They have served as grim reminders of crumbling infrastructure in Russia.
However, the head of the Emergencies Ministry's supervision department, Yuri Deshevykh, was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying the nursing home's fire-alarm system, installed this year, had functioned properly. The Investigative Committee said the seven-story brick building was constructed in 1988.
Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.
In January 2009, a nursing home fire in the Komi region of Russia's northwest killed 23 residents. A November 2007 fire caused by a short circuit killed 32 patients in a nursing home in the Tula region south of Moscow.
In March 2007, 62 people died in a fire in another nursing home in southern Russia.
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