Thirty seven dead in Russian psychiatric hospital fire: Official

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

Firefighters work near a psychiatric hospital destroyed by fire in the Novgorod region town of Luka in this September 13, 2013 picture provided by the Russian Emergencies Ministry. REUTERS Photo

Thirty seven people were killed when a fire swept through a wooden psychiatric hospital in northwest Russia overnight Thursday, regional investigators said.
 
"During a fire in the Oksochi psychiatric hospital 37 people died," regional investigators said in a statement. Ten people have already been pulled out of the debris in the village of Luka 220 kilometres southeast of Saint Petersburg, the statement said.
 
The fire, which according to preliminary information was sparked by a patient smoking in bed, quickly spread through the wooden structure housing at the all-male facility in Luka village in the region of Novgorod.
 
Around 60 patients and personnel were believed to be inside the hospital when it caught fire and around 20 were evacuated, the committee said.
 
In April, a fire that ravaged a psychiatric hospital in the Moscow region killed 38 people, most of them patients engulfed by flames as they slept behind barred windows.