At least two dead in old people’s home fire in central Russia

Firefighters and rescuers have recovered the bodies of two elderly people in their search for the victims of a fire that destroyed an old people’s home in the Kostroma Region in central Russia, the regional interior department said on Sunday.

The fire broke out early on Sunday in the village of Tikhon in the Kostroma Region. There were 13 elderly people and two social workers inside the retirement home when the fire erupted. Nine people were safely evacuated, the regional interior department said.

“Firefighters have found the fragments of two elderly people under the debris. The search for the other two missing people is continuing,” the regional interior department said.

The one-storey wooden building was built in 1964 and was completely destroyed by the fire.

The cause of the deadly fire is being established. Rescuers blame the fire on careless smoking

A series of deadly blazes in care homes has hit Russia in the past few years, highlighting safety lapses in state-run institutions.

In February 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered comprehensive checks in all Russian retirement homes to uncover possible safety violations and to look into general living conditions after 23 people, most of them elderly persons, died in a fire that destroyed a wooden care home in the Republic of Komi in northwest Russia.

In a similar incident in June 2007, at least 10 people were killed and four seriously injured in a fire at a retirement home in West Siberia.

The deadliest incident took place in the Krasnodar region in southern Russia in March 2007, where 63 pensioners and medical staff died in a fire at a retirement home.