Italy: Nursing home fire kills six people

The balance sheet of the Conyugi Nursing Home in Milan is heavy. A total of five women, aged 69 to 87, and a 73-year-old man were killed, burned or poisoned in a fire at this Milan nursing home. According to Italian news agencies, the institution also regrets 81 injuries, including two in serious condition. According to the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, the rescuers evacuated 170 people, taking them out “in their arms one by one.”

The flame started in a room in which two residents were charred. The wounded were provided prompt assistance after poisoning associated with the inhalation of toxic fumes. “We saw how old people protected their faces with wet rags, then they were evacuated, some in wheelchairs, some in walkers,” says a local resident, an eyewitness to the facts.

A dozen ambulances, fire engines and a mortuary van were still on Friday morning outside the establishment, part of which is now uninhabitable.

The causes of the incident remain unknown.

Early in the morning, the scene was examined by technical and scientific police officers. According to Lombard firefighters, the causes of the accident, probably of accidental origin, are not yet known, but an investigation has been launched. “It should also make it possible to understand whether the materials used, such as sheets, mattresses and other internal components, were fireproof, fire resistant and in accordance with the law, given the large smoke that emanated from them,” the Italian said. daily Corriere della Serra.

The municipality of Milan is trying to relocate dozens of residents who were evacuated from a building built in 1920 to other holiday homes that were already hard hit during the first wave of the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020, when 53 people died. Milan daily.