MOSCOW, May 1 (RIA Novosti) - A woman died in a fire that broke out on early Wednesday at a psychiatric hospital in central Russia’s Tambov region, a spokesman for the local Emergencies Ministry department said.
“According to preliminary information, one of the patients smoked in her bed. The bed caught fire and the woman suffocated. The rest of the patients and the personnel - a total of 52 people - were evacuated,” the spokesman said.
Investigators are currently working at the scene to establish the cause of the fire, which completely destroyed one of the rooms in the hospital.
This was the second fire at a psychiatric hospital in Russia within a week. A total of 38 people died last Friday in the fire that broke out at a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Ramensky north of Moscow.
Following the blaze in the Moscow Region, President Vladimir Putin called for a closer look to be taken at fire safety in hospitals across the country.
Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova pledged that her ministry would conduct an inspection of all psychiatric institutions by June 1, 2013.
