Six residents of a nursing home died on Friday and more than 80 were injured in a blaze in Milan, northern Italy, local firefighters said.
“Six people died and many more were taken to hospital from smoke inhalation. Firefighters saved dozens of other residents,” the Lombardy capital’s fire department said on Twitter, adding that the causes of the fire were not yet known . .
#Milanpray 1:20 #7luglio #firework in casa di riposo via dei Cinquecento. 6 persone decedute, numerosi intossicati ricoverati in ospedale. Determine le persone salvate dai #vigilidelfuoco che hanno evacuato la struttura immediately. Settlement cause in corso pic.twitter.com/I8nJCxeSIM
– Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) July 7, 2023
According to Italian news agencies, 81 people were injured, two of them seriously.
The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, who went to the scene in the early hours of the morning, explained that due to the state of health of the residents, they had to be removed “one by one”.
“It could have been worse, but six deaths is still a very high number and we hope that the two hospitalized people who are in a delicate situation are not added up,” Sala said.
The alarm was raised by maintenance personnel, which allowed the flames to be contained, as only one room was affected, but the problem was the smoke that quickly spread through the house.
Two patients were hospitalized with code red, the most severe, while the rest had milder symptoms.
As for the causes, “the main hypothesis is that of an accidental fire, but everything remains to be determined,” the firefighters explained to the media.
The residence is owned by the municipality and managed by the Proges cooperative, which manages 300 centers of this type in 11 regions and welcomes the elderly with different levels of dependence, but without hospital care.
News updated at 07:56
Source: DN
