In Russia, Fire at Home for Elderly Kills at Least 63
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ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) – A fire swept through a home for elderly people in southern Russia today, killing at least 63 people, Russian news agencies and emergency officials said.
It took firefighters nearly an hour to get from the nearest sizable town to the facility in the Krasnodar region village of Yeisk, where there is no fire station, said Sergei Petrov, a duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry’s southern branch.
Mr. Petrov said 50 people were confirmed dead, but RIA-Novosti, ITAR-Tas and Interfax later reported that the death toll had risen to 63.
The devastating nighttime fire was the latest in a number of deadly blazes at schools, dormitories, hospitals and other state facilities that have plagued Russia in recent years.
It came less than 24 hours after a methane gas blast at a Siberian coal mine killed at least 78 people in Russia’s deadliest mining disaster in a decade.
