Blaze at care home in Latvia kills 25 residents

LATVIA:A fire at a Latvian home for elderly and disabled people killed at least 25 people yesterday in one of the worst fires in the Baltic nation's history.

Initial investigations suggested an electrical fault may have caused the blaze, which struck the hospice in the village of Alsunga on a night when some parts of Latvia suffered their lowest temperatures in almost a century.

The conditions hampered fire crews who were called to the scene in the early hours yesterday morning.

The firefighters had to contend with water freezing in their hoses as they tried to extinguish the fierce blaze in the converted mansion and evacuate around 90 residents.

Silvija Petere, who has spent 47 years working at the Regi nursing home about 160km (100 miles) west of Riga, described a scene of horror and panic as fire took hold of the 19th-century building.

"People were screaming and jumping out of windows. The youngest and fittest were the ones who died because they were located in the attic. "People who had limited mobility were located on the first floor and we were able to save many of these people," she told local media.

Inga Vetere, of the State Fire and Rescue Service, said emergency workers believed they had found the remains of 12 people and that 13 others were still missing in the smouldering wreckage.

"The rescuers have recovered what look like the bodily remains of 12 persons," she said.

"There is hardly anything left of them, they are badly charred. DNA analysis will have to be used to identify them.

"Most of the people are handicapped - that is why there are so many casualties.

"They had to be literally led out of the building, which is very burnt-out.

"Some of them were in wheelchairs," Ms Vetere said.

"Initially, we said 26 people were missing, feared dead, but we found one man who had hidden under a bed on the first floor of the house."

The roof of the red-brick building, which was built in 1890, collapsed in the fire, which Jurijs Kislaks, deputy chief of the State Fire and Rescue Service, said "could have been caused by an overload of the electrical circuit or by somebody smoking in a restricted area.

"But we don't know for sure - it will be investigated."

Fire service chief Ainars Pencis said the blaze was the worst in Latvia's modern history. Fire crews from Alsunga and the nearby towns of Kuldiga, Ventspils and Aizpute all helped fight the inferno.

Welfare ministry officials said the building, which was converted into a hospice in 1956, had passed a full safety inspection last year.

The ministry said all Latvia's nursing homes would now undergo another round of inspections.

The prime minister Aigars Kalvitis declared next Wednesday a national day of mourning.

Meanwhile, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga sent her condolences to relatives of the victims after what she called "a night of accident and tragedy in Latvia".