The Russian authorities have raised to 22 the number of deaths in the context of a fire registered on Friday night in a residence for the elderly in the Russian city of Kemerovo, in the region of the same name, located in the south-central part of the country.
According to the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, another six people have been injured, two of whom have required hospitalization and are in serious condition, reports the Russian agency TASS.
At around 10:20 p.m. (local time) on Friday, emergency services received a call alerting them to a fire in an undeclared two-story private nursing home. When the firefighters arrived, the roof — with an area of 180 square meters — was engulfed in flames.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that about thirty fire crews have participated in the extinction work, totaling 80 people. Late at night they were still removing rubble in temperatures of 20 degrees below zero.
Kemerovo Governor Sergey Tsivilev assured in the evening that after the tragic fire, all such residences, mainly private ones, would be inspected within a week.
This is not the first fire in a nursing home in Kemerovo. On January 8, 2022, a fire broke out on the first floor of a residence in which 48 people were evacuated and four died.
