38 die in mental hospital: A fire engulfed part of a mental hospital outside of Moscow, leaving 38 people dead and only three survivors, according to reports. Some reports suggested that a patient smoking a cigarette may have caused the blaze.
Officials told the BBC that the fire broke out in the early morning at Hospital No. 14 in the village of Ramenskiy. Most of the victims were said to have been asleep.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined but reports suggest that a patient may have started it accidentally with a cigarette, ignoring a ban on smoking.
Firefighters took more than an hour to get there because a road into the town was closed due to a river flooding.
The BBC reported that 36 of the victims were patients and two were staff members.
A police source told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that patients were also likely sedated with medicine.
Russia Today reported that a small tunnel was found under the burned out hospital, suggesting that some of the patients were planning an escape.
“All victims were found in their beds,” said Yuri Deshovykh, head of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s oversight department, reported the New York Times. “There was no one in the corridor. Even the dead bodies of two nurses were found in their recreation room.”
The Times noted that fires in Russian mental hospitals and nursing facilities have resulted in dozens of deaths.
