Firefighters: Narva nursing home met fire safety rules in fatal blaze
Firefighters say they found no fire safety violations at a Narva nursing home where an elderly woman perished in a fire Tuesday evening.
The cause of the fire, which was confined to a smoking area has so far been put down to possible lack of care when smoking, is still under investigation, the Rescue Board (Päästeamet) said.
The board said as well as fire safety features being in place the facility's staff responded promptly, but the woman could not be revived.
Around a quarter of the home's 130 residents smoke, the board added.
Staff at the nursing home on Rahu põik were dealing with the aftermath of the blaze and the fatality on Wednesday morning.
Fire doors and containment features meant the fire did not spread elsewhere in the building and no evacuation was required; when firefighters arrived at the scene just minutes after being notified shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, all that remained for them to do was ventilate the premises and conduct checks.
"The nursing home staff managed to respond to the fire promptly and quickly, extinguishing it. All that remained for the firefighters was to check the scene and, unfortunately, confirm that a person had died in the fire. But if fire safety had not been in order, the consequences would have been even more serious," said Denis Duškin, head of the Narva fire station.
According to nursing home staff, the deceased woman used a wheelchair but was otherwise fully independent and mentally alert, requiring neither assistance nor special treatment.
Staff said the woman often wore clothes made from synthetic fibers, which may have caught fire while she was smoking.
The nursing home is considering restricting access to the smoking room in the evenings, when fewer people are moving around the building, but added it cannot close the room permanently and cannot send its residents outside to smoke.
"It is very difficult to forbid an elderly person from doing something they have been accustomed to doing for years. For this reason we maintain the smoking room so that residents can smoke indoors. If people started smoking outside, there would be several times more cases of colds and other respiratory illnesses," said Tatjana Stolfat, head of the Narva Social Work Center.
A total of 23 fire fatalities have been reported in Estonia so far this year.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming
Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera,' reporter Jüri Nikolajev.
