10 die in fire at Russia nursing home for old people

Moscow, June 21 (UNI) At least 10 people were killed and four others injured today in a fire at a nursing home for old people in the village of Yekaterinova in Siberia's Omsk region.

Giving details of the casualties, the spokesman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry Viktor Beltsov told news agencies that there were 317 people in the nursing home when the fire broke out after midnight at the top floor of the three-storey building.

Beltsov said the hospital fire alarm system functioned properly, but a nurse on duty was away at the moment and failed to immediately alert the patients and call firefighters.

Nearly all the second floor and part of the roof were in flames by the time fire engines and ambulances came to the spot of the incident, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

''The delay resulted in fatalities,'' Mr Beltsov said, adding the fire apparently had been caused by a violation of fire safety rules by patients, many of whom were drunk after a party the previous night and in bed.

Fire kills about 18,000 people in Russia, each year. Deadly blazes at schools, hospitals and other state-run facilities in recent years have revealed official negligence and rampant violations of fire safety rules.

It is the latest in a series of blazes at care centres in Russia.

In March, a fire at a nursing home in the Azov Sea coast village of Kamyshevatskaya in southern Russia killed 63 people.

Last December, another fire at a drug rehabilitation centre killed 45 women in Moscow.

UNI