Fire kills at least 35 at psychiatric hospital in northwest Russia

VELIKY NOVGOROD, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- A fire swept through a wooden psychiatric hospital in northwest Russia on early Thursday morning, killing a nurse and at least 34 patients, local authorities said. It comes just months after a similar blaze killed 36 patients and two doctors near Moscow.

The incident happened at around 2:52 a.m. local time on Thursday when a fire broke out inside a patient's room at the Oksochi psychiatric hospital in the village of Luka, located near the city of Veliky Novgorod in northwestern Novgorod Oblast. It is believed the blaze began when the patient was smoking in his bed, causing the bed to catch fire.

The fast-moving fire was reported by a nurse to a nearby volunteer fire department, which arrived quickly at the scene. "With the help of fire pumps they began to extinguish the fire while the hospital staff evacuated patients," said Novgorod Governor Sergei Mitin, who said 59 people were inside the building.

Twenty-three people, three of whom were injured, were rescued from the hospital as flames quickly engulfed the wooden one-story building that was built in the 1860s. The building, while equipped with functional fire-prevention systems, had previously been deemed unsafe and was ordered to close by August next year when new facilities currently under construction are finished.

By early Saturday morning, rescue workers had recovered the bodies of 35 people, including the body of a 46-year-old nurse who helped rescue patients from their rooms as the building went up in flames. Two patients who remain missing are also believed to have been killed, and recovery operations were continuing for them.

"Psychologists who work with other patients at the institution have evacuated the 23 people who were rescued and have placed them in other institutions across the region," Mitin said. He said the government would help families of the victims with financial assistance, but about half of the victims had no relatives who they were in contact with.

Russia's Investigative Committee said it sent investigators to the scene and opened a criminal case on suspicion of negligence and death as a result of negligence. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the committee, said its investigators have already carried out searches, seized documents, and questioned witnesses at the scene.

"According to the preliminary data, the cause of the fire was the careless handling of fire by one of the patients," Markin said. "In the framework of the criminal case the investigators will examine the completeness and legality of the actions of officials who are responsible for ensuring the safety of medical patients."

Friday's incident comes after a fire broke out in late April at a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Ramensky near Moscow, killing 36 patients and two doctors. It was followed by a fire at a psychiatric hospital in central Russia's Tambov region just days later, killing a woman who was smoking in her bed.

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