On Tuesday, fire erupted in a coronavirus hospital in Russia’s second city of Saint Petersburg killing five people while some victims were attached to ventilators, said the officials. After the blaze broke out on the sixth floor of the Saint George Hospital, 150 people were evacuated, said the emergency ministry.
The hospital had been repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients and some of the dead patients had been connected to ventilators when the fire began. Firefighters started working outside while windows near the top floor of the hospital were blackened.
“Everyone is shocked by what happened,” said Svetlana Stepanova, a pensioner receiving treatment at the hospital.
“A fire in the hospital is a nightmare,” she told AFP.
Referring to preliminary information, Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said a shortcut circuit may be the cause of the fire. His office said in a statement that a ventilator has caught fire.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it has started investigating the incident. On Monday, a fire broke out in a retirement home killing nine people. Apart from that another Moscow COVID-19 hospital caught fire, killing one and hundreds were evacuated. Russia has recorded 10,899 new coronavirus cases and the number increasing. The pandemic has claimed 2116 lives till now.
