MOSCOW — Fire tore through a nursing home in Russia, trapping patients in fast-moving flames and choking smoke at a facility cited for numerous safety violations including no fire alarm, officials said Monday. At least 31 people were killed.
Horrific fires at state-run facilities have underscored the negligence, mismanagement, corruption and crumbling infrastructure that persist despite an oil-fueled upswing in Russia’s fortunes under President Vladimir Putin.
Nearly 18,000 people are killed in fires in Russia each year, several times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.
The fire broke out early Sunday afternoon in the two- story home for the elderly and invalids in the Tula region south of Moscow. It spread quickly through the 55-year-old brick building, where the wooden interior walls burned fast, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said.
More than 250 people escaped or were evacuated, officials said.
Some jumped from windows, and a nurse described frantic efforts to save bedridden patients – though emergency officials blamed personnel and poorly executed evacuations for the high death toll.
A short circuit apparently caused the fire, officials said.
