The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, regretted this Saturday the death of three people in a fire at the hospital in the city of Tivoli, near Rome, which broke out on Friday night.
Meloni expressed “his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the fire” and his closeness “to all those affected,” according to a statement cited by the Italian agency ANSA.
Firefighters announced four deaths, but the president of the Lazio region, Francesco Rocca, clarified that the fourth person “had died an hour earlier.”
Those who died in the fire are two men, ages 76 and 86, and an 84-year-old woman.
The patient who died an hour before the fire was another 86-year-old woman.
Health Minister Orazio Schillaci also sent his condolences to the families of the victims, lamenting a “terrible tragedy.”
“We hope that the investigation will clarify the causes of the fire as soon as possible,” he added in a statement cited by the French agency AFP.
The fire occurred on Friday night, around 10:30 p.m. local time (9:30 p.m. in Lisbon), at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, in Tivoli, about 20 kilometers from Rome.
During the rescue operation about 200 people were evacuated from the hospital.
According to initial investigations, the fire started in the area where hospital waste is stored, spread to the floor where the outpatient clinic is located, and subsequently reached the emergency room and intensive care unit.
The Tivoli Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation after the fire and an autopsy will be performed on the bodies of the victims to determine the causes of death.
“We have to understand what happened and how the flames spread. (…) This should not have happened,” Rocca told reporters outside the hospital.
“The emergency room of the hospital is destroyed. It will be weeks,” added the regional president, quoted by ANSA.
Source: TSF
