Russian psychiatric hospital fire kills at least 38
A fire swept quickly through a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow overnight killing at least 38 people, Russian officials said on Friday.
Health Ministry officials said that the one-story hospital housed patients with severe mental disorders.
Vadim Belovoshin from the emergency situations ministry official told the Itar-TASS news agency that the windows in the hospital were barred but said there were two fire escapes.
Officials from the Russian Investigative Committee said they were looking at poor fire regulations and short circuit as possible causes for the hospital fire in the Ramenskoye settlement in the early hours of Friday.
By early Friday morning, investigators listed 38 people – 36 patients and two doctors – as dead. Only one nurse and two patients managed to escape, according to the health ministry.
The emergency services also posted a list of the patients indicating they ranged in age from 20 to 76.
Belovoshin also said that it took fire fighters an hour to get to the hospital following an emergency call because a local ferry across the canal was closed and the fire fighters had to make a detour.
Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyev told Russian state-television that the fire alarm seems to have worked but the fire spread too quickly. Belovoshin said the fire first broke in a wooden annex.
A spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee told Russia news agencies that most of the people died in their beds and did not even try to escape.
Deadly fires are common in Russia because of widespread violations of fire safety rules.
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