Body of 30th victim of fire at nursing home for mentally ill retrieved from rubble
VELIKY NOVGOROD. Sept 13 (Interfax) - Rescuers have retrieved 30 bodies from the rubble at the site of a fire in a nursing home for the mentally ill in the village of Luka, the Novgorod region, the regional Emergency Situations Ministry department told Interfax on Friday.
"The body of the 30th victim was retrieved minutes ago. As many as 193 Emergency Situations Ministry workers and 43 items of equipment are continuing to work at the site. We will try to finish the search operation until dark," a department spokesperson said.
It was reported earlier that a fire at the one-story wooden building of the nursing home for the mentally ill broke out in the early hours of Friday. There are a total of about 60 people in the home, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry, and more than 20 of them were evacuated. The fire killed 37 and slightly injured four other people. Among those killed is a female nurse trying to rescue the patients.
A criminal case on charges of causing death through carelessness (Russian Criminal Code Article 109 Part 3) and negligence (Article 293 Part 3) has been opened into the accident.