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Blaze kills 38 at psychiatric hospital near Moscow | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
A blaze has engulfed a wing of a psychiatric hospital in a village near Moscow, killing 38 people, with just three survivors, officials say. | |
Fire broke out in Hospital No 14 shortly after 02:00 (22:00 GMT Thursday), when most of the victims are believed to have been asleep. | |
Investigators say an alarm went off but the duty nurse only managed to evacuate two patients because of heavy smoke. | |
Reports suggest a patient who ignored a smoking ban may have started the fire. | |
It quickly consumed the one-storey, brick-and-wood building. | |
Firefighters dispatched to the scene took more than an hour to arrive instead of the standard 20 minutes because a river crossing had been closed due to flooding, Russian media report. | |
Several fires at state institutions across Russia in recent years resulted in heavy loss of life. | |
In 2009, 23 people died in a blaze at an old people's home in Komi while in 2007, 63 died at a home in Krasnodar. In 2006, a fire at a Moscow drug rehabilitation clinic killed 45 women. | |
Safety checks | |
According to a list of victims being circulated online, the true number of people killed is 38, most of them patients but including two members of staff. | |
Believed to be local people, they range in age from 76 to 20. | |
A statement by Russia's Investigative Committee says that, according to preliminary information, the source of the fire was a sofa used in a common room. | |
A surviving patient told investigators that a drug addict had been admitted with withdrawal symptoms on Thursday, and had been smoking constantly despite warnings from staff. | |
The Investigative Committee added that it was examining other theories such as a short circuit or arson. | |
A fire safety inspection was carried out at the hospital last year and action taken to improve safety measures, the hospital's chief doctor, who was not named, told Russian media. | |
The doctor described the patients who died as a "very tough group of people, psychiatric patients with chronic illnesses and frequent attacks" who had suffered from alcohol and drug addiction. | |
Patients were under sedation and most of them did not wake up, emergencies official Yuri Deshevykh told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. | |
Bars on windows may also have been a factor in the high death toll. | |
A police source quoted by Interfax news agency said that following the blaze, a hole 1.5m (yds) deep was found beneath the charred remains of the building. | |
One of the patients may have been digging an escape tunnel, the source added. |