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Alarms ignored, 62 die in blaze

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 21, 2007

KAMYSHEVATSKAYA, Russia - Flames engulfed a nursing home in this village without a fire station Tuesday, killing 62 frail and elderly residents after the night watchman ignored two alarms and emergency teams took nearly an hour to arrive. At least 30 people were injured.

Coming a day after a gas explosion that killed more than 100 coal miners in Siberia, the fire could undermine Kremlin contentions that conditions are improving in newly prosperous Russia.

Angry residents hurled accusations of negligence at the regional envoy of President Vladimir Putin, who announced that today would be a national day of mourning for those killed in the fire and mine catastrophe as well as a plane crash Saturday that killed six.

Authorities blamed the nursing home disaster on safety violations at the home, toxic building materials used in a renovation, negligence by the staff and the nearest firehouse being about 30 miles from Kamyshevatskaya, a town on the Azov Sea in Krasnodar in southern Russia.

Many of the 93 elderly residents of the home were too frail to escape on their own, and nearly all of those who did get out suffered injuries.

"I didn't have time to get frightened. I opened the door; there was smoke and the acrid smell of plastic. I shut the door and immediately jumped out of the window. I have survived by a real miracle," one survivor, Vasily Kondratko, told NTV television.

Some residents banged on windows pleading for help, according to a local man who said he helped evacuate some people from the two-story brick building before firefighters arrived.

"I rushed here, saw the flames and started to help people get out from the second floor," Yevgeny Solomin told NTV. "But what could we do? Do you know how hard it is to get someone down a ladder from the second floor? If only firefighters had been here."

Emergency officials said that a night watchman ignored two fire alarms before reporting the blaze about 1 a.m. and that it took firefighters in Yeisk almost an hour to get to Kamyshevatskaya, where the fire station was closed last year to save money.

"When we arrived, we saw the ground floor in flames and gulps of flame under the roof. I entered the building and immediately saw a horrifying picture - the body of a man lying on a bed, his head burning," said rescue worker Maxim Movchan. "When I saw those who suffocated on the first floor I thought they were more lucky."

Thirty-five people were injured, said Sergei Petrov, a regional emergency official. Acting Krasnodar Gov. Murat Akhedzhak said 30 people were hospitalized.

Officials said a fire alarm system that had not been fully installed signaled three times, but a watchman ignored the first two alarms and reported the fire only after he saw flames.

In addition, nursing home staff were not at their posts, slowing efforts to find keys and open an emergency exit, officials said.

The country has suffered a number of deadly blazes at schools, dormitories, hospitals and other state facilities that have revealed rampant violations of fire safety rules and official negligence. A fire at a Moscow drug treatment facility in December killed 45 women trapped by gates and barred windows.

Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.

[Last modified March 21, 2007, 02:09:04]