At least 22 people were hospitalized, all of them reported to be in critical condition, many with carbonic monoxide poisoning, Igor Banin, the head physician of Voronezh’s regional clinic, said.
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A working group of the government commission for prevention and liquidation of emergencies has left for Russia’s Voronezh region to investigate the causes of a fire that erupted at a psycho-neurological clinic in the Alfyorovka village, the Russian Emergencies Ministry press service told TASS.
The home had around 140 patients in all.
Most of the fatalities were aged in their 60s and 70s, although some were in their 40s and 50s, according to a list of patients released by the emergencies ministry.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered officials to provide support to the victims’ families, while Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov went in person to the scene.
He said 39 of the patients in the house can barely walk.
Markin said Russian society should require the building of leading rehabilitation centers with complete security systems.
In April 2013, a small psychiatric hospital in a town outside of Moscow burned down, killing 38 people; only two patients and one nurse survived. The health minister said half of the patients were given sedatives during the nighttime, but insisted they weren’t given any medicine that would leave them unconscious and unable to escape and weren’t tied to their beds.
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More than 440 firefighters and emergency workers spent around three hours bringing the fire under control. Investigators said the fire was caused inadvertently by a patient who was smoking, but the chief doctor insisted the fire was deliberately set.
