Fire kills four at Ukraine infectious diseases hospital

KIEV: Four people died in Ukraine after a blaze tore through the intensive care unit of an infectious diseases hospital that was treating coronavirus patients, police said Thursday.

It was the latest in a spate of deadly fires in Ukraine, which are not uncommon in the ex-Soviet republic due to poor compliance with safety regulations and ageing infrastructure.

The fire broke out just before midnight on Wednesday on the ground floor of the five-storey building in the southwestern city of Zaporizhzhya.

"The fire killed four people, including a medical worker," regional police said in a statement.

Three of the victims had been diagnosed with coronavirus and were on ventilators, according to the regional governor quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Two more patients suffered burns and poisoning from inhaling fumes, while eight were rescued unharmed.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known but police said they have launched an investigation into a violation of safety measures.

President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his "sincere condolences" to the families of the victims and sent Health Minister Maksym Stepanov to the scene, the presidency said in a statement.

"Saddened to hear of the tragic fire... My deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones," Hans Kluge, the regional director for Europe at the World Health Organization, said on Twitter.

In January, 16 people were killed in a fire at an illegal nursing home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

In December 2019, a fire killed 16 people and injured 30 at a college in the Black Sea city of Odessa.

Seventeen people died in May 2016 when a makeshift home for the elderly outside the capital Kiev caught fire.