Disaster struck when nine people were killed by a blaze in Russia’s Tver region, about 170 kilometers northwest of Moscow.
RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Kirill Nevsky, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, confirmed that nine were killed and two others had been injured in the blaze.
“The wounded were taken to the central district hospital. There were 458 people in the building. The cause of the fire and the amount of damages caused by the fire are now being established,” Nevsky said.
It seems that the blaze might have been started by one of the residents setting himself on fire.
Investigators found a canister of flammable liquid in the room where the fire started.
Dmitry Medvedev ordered a thorough investigation along with compensation payments for the fire victims, and said the retirement home should be rebuilt as quickly as possible.
Fires occur frequently at Russia’s state-run facilities, including nursing homes.Russia has a long history of negligence and violations of fire-safety rules .
An Emergency Situations Ministry official in Moscow told ITAR-TASS news agency that the facility was in good fire-safety condition when the fire occurred . Yuri Deshevykh said annual fire-safety inspections were conducted followed by “prompt measures” to correct any possible violations of fire safety rules. He said the latest inspection was carried out in March.
Deshevykh said firefighters managed to put out the blaze shortly after the facility’s fire-alarm system was activated.
Firefighters managed to put the fire out in less than an hour.
“At 4:33 [a.m. local time] the officer on duty of the Vyshny Volochyok fire department in Tver Oblast received a report about a fire at a home for the elderly,” Nevsky said.
“The first unit arrived at the site five minutes later. Upon arrival they saw a room burning on the third floor of a seven-floor building. The fire was localized at 4:52 and fully extinguished at 5:24.”

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