RUSSIA:At least 54 people died in three fires in Russia over the weekend, in the latest evidence of the country's failure to upgrade many rundown public health facilities.
In the worst incident in Moscow, 45 women in a drug-treatment clinic perished. Most are believed to have died from toxic fumes, and staff could not open the one exit not blocked by flames. Some staff are reported to have fled from Hospital 17, in the southwest of Moscow, along with 170 patients who escaped unhurt.
The remainder were stranded inside the drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation clinic, behind locked gates and barred windows.
Staff explained the centre had tight security because addicts are treated as potentially dangerous psychiatric patients in the Russian system. Two staff were among the dead.
Russian deputy emergencies minister Alexander Chupriyan said most of the bodies had been found near the locked exit, where they had been asphyxiated by thick smoke.
"The personnel did not undertake any rescue measures," said Mr Chupriyan. Investigators believe the fire was started deliberately by someone inside the hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning.
A fire at another health centre near Moscow was brought under control, without any fatalities.
In a third incident, at least nine people died from carbon monoxide fumes caused by a fire inside a psychiatric hospital in the western Siberian town of Taiga on Saturday night. Arson is also suspected.
Russia's fire safety record remains well behind that of most developed countries, with more than 18,000 people killed every year in fires. Russians are 14 times more likely to perish in a fire than people in western Europe.