In a hospital in Yaroslavl, ventilators turned off due to a fire. One patient died

In Yaroslavl, in the clinical hospital No. 3, located on Mayakovsky street in the Zavolzhsky region, a fire broke out on the evening of August 27. In this regard, artificial lung ventilation devices were turned off and three patients died from a lack of oxygen, reported RIA Novosti in emergency services. However, the regional government confirmed the death of one person.

According to preliminary data, the fire occurred for an electrical reason, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Yaroslavl region. In turn, a source in a medical institution reported “Interfax” that the cause of the fire could be a human factor. “A humidifier valve being treated for arson,” he said.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations clarified that at the time of the start of the fire, there were 90 people with coronavirus infection and 17 employees of a medical institution in the hospital premises.

The area of ​​fire in the medical facility was 5 square meters, the mattress in the ward caught fire. 76 people were evacuated. 14 fire trucks and 45 employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations worked at the scene.

According to the press service of the government of the Yaroslavl region, a message about smoke in the ward of the hospital’s therapeutic department arrived at 22:09.

The regional government also denied information about the three deaths in the hospital. “One person died, the cause of death was not related to the fire,” the press service said.

They added that eight people who were treated in the intensive care unit of KB-3 were transferred to the Semashko hospital.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, a patient born in 1947 died as a result of the accident.

Earlier in Russian hospitals there have already been several cases of fires, accompanied by malfunctions of mechanical ventilation and the death of patients. So, on the night of June 9 in Ryazan in the OKB named after N.A. Semashko perished three patients, one more of the victims died later. The cause of the fire was the ignition of one of the ventilators in the intensive care unit, where patients with complications from coronavirus infection were treated. The combustion area was 15 m². According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, as a result of the fire, eight people were hospitalized, another 35 were evacuated.

Among the victims – two nurses who began to extinguish the fire before the arrival of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, one of them received burns of 75% of the body.

In May last year, several patients with coronavirus died in fires in Moscow and St. Petersburg. After that, the operation of the “Aventa-M” ventilator was suspended. Roszdravnadzor then did not reveal a direct connection between violations in the production of ventilators and their fire.

A fire in a hospital in Yaroslavl is the second death in August of patients connected to ventilators. At the beginning of the month, 11 patients of the Republican Clinical Emergency Hospital in Vladikavkaz died due to interruptions in oxygen that occurred after the pipe burst underground. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the performance of work or the provision of services that did not meet safety requirements (part 3 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). As part of the investigation, the chief doctor of the hospital was detained.