23 People Died in a Fire at a Nursing Home in Russia

On 31 January 2009, a fire at a home for the elderly in the Komi Republic (a federal subject of Russia) killed 23 people, while three people managed to survive. The fire reduced the boarding house building entirely to ashes.

A special commission of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived at the scene to investigate the causes of the fire. The boarding house, located in the village of Podelsk, was intended for elderly people and people with disabilities, and had a capacity of 38 residents. The facility was on the balance sheet of the administration of the Podelsk rural settlement.

As of 31 January, 26 people were registered at the institution, five of whom were unable to move independently. On the night of the tragedy, a single watchman was on duty, and through his efforts it was impossible to evacuate all of the elderly residents in the building. The fire department received the report of the fire at 18:20. The report was made by local residents who noticed flames in the gaps of the building's logs.

According to the watchman, he tried to extinguish the fire on his own. Realizing that it was impossible to bring the fire under control, he began evacuating people and carried three elderly women outside. Thus, 20 minutes passed between the start of the fire and the call to the "01" emergency service.

The building that burned down was a single-storey structure made entirely of wood, with three evacuation exits. The distance from the home for the elderly to the nearest fire station was 22 kilometres. When the first fire brigade arrived at 18:44, the flames had engulfed the entire building. As a result of the incident, 23 people died.

The criminal case opened in connection with the incident was concluded on 27 October 2011. Aleksey Korolov, a social worker who served as director of the home for the elderly, was charged with violating fire safety regulations, but in the summer of 2011 the Supreme Court of Komi acquitted him.

In June 2011, a court verdict came into force against four employees of the state fire supervision authority of the Kortkeros district for negligent performance of their duties. Sergey Stakhiyev, head of the state fire supervision authority, was sentenced to 3.5 years, while inspectors Aleksandr Gudirev and Valeriy Oboturov received suspended sentences of three and two years, respectively. Inspector Andrey Makarov was acquitted.

Among the defendants in this case were also Nikolay Livson, former head of the Kortkeros district administration; Tatyana Sheveleva and Tatyana Koldanova, two directors of the state enterprise "Centre for Social Services to the Population"; and Konstantin Sajin, former director of the Komi Social Development Agency.

Livson was charged with violating fire safety regulations, while Sheveleva and Koldanova were charged with abuse of official powers.

According to the investigation, Mayor Livson failed to take measures to eliminate fire safety violations, as a result of which it was impossible to evacuate residents when the fire broke out. For her part, Koldanova issued an unlawful decision on placing pensioners, including people with disabilities, in the home for the elderly, while Sheveleva appointed a person who had failed to fulfil the assigned duties as head of the social assistance unit.