All theories of fire at Voronezh clinic looked at – Russian emergencies minister

At least 23 people were killed in a deadly blaze at a psychiatric hospital in the southwestern Russian region of Voronezh, the Russian Emergency situations Ministry said Sunday. Those who were evacuated were placed in a nearby home for elderly and disabled people.

Russian news reports say all of those who died were patients.

The fire gutted the brick-and-timber hospital building and it took more than 440 firefighters and emergency workers around three hours to bring the inferno under control.

“Thus, the death toll in the fire is 23, two of them died at hospital”, the source said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday sent a letter of condolence to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the casualties in a fire at a psychiatric hospital in Russia.

It is believed the patients choked on noxious smoke.

Experts were looking into what triggered the blaze, investigators said.

Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev ordered the authorities to provide all necessary assistance to families of those killed or injured. ‘I would make it mandatory for governors to tour such places’.

The bodies of 19 people were found on the scene and two others died in a local hospital, an official with the Emergencies Ministry’s crisis center told RIA Novosti.

In September 2013, a fire at a home for psychiatric patients in the Novgorod region northwest of Moscow killed 37 people.