Death toll from fire at Voronezh region mental health clinic rises to 22
MOSCOW. Dec 13 (Interfax) - Twenty-two people were confirmed killed as a result of a fire at a mental health hospital in the Voronezh region, and a search for one more person continues, the press service of the Central Regional Department of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax on Sunday.
"The death toll currently stands at 22. Of them, two people have died at healthcare institutions. A search for one more person continues," the press service said.
Lists with the names of the people who were killed in the fire at the mental health clinic, were injured, were evacuated or were admitted to hospitals have been published on the website of the ministry's Central Regional Department. There are 23 surnames on these lists.
It was reported that a blaze broke out at a mental health clinic, located in the village of Alfyorovka in the Novokhopyorsk district of the Voronezh region, at 11:02 p.m. on Saturday. The fire was contained on an area of 600 square meters at 0:59 a.m. on Sunday. It was extinguished at 3:05 a.m.
A number of fires at healthcare institutions across Russia in recent years have resulted in heavy losses of life.
In September 2013, 37 people were killed as a result of a fire at the 'Oksochi' psychiatric hospital in Veliky Novgorod. Several months earlier, in April 2013, a blaze at another psychiatric clinic, located in the Moscow region, claimed the lives of 38 people.
In 2010, an elderly resident of an old people's home in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver region, doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire. Eight people living in neighboring rooms were suffocated by smoke.
In 2009, 23 people were killed in a blaze at an old people's home in the Republic of Komi in north-western Russia.
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