Two die in fire at Bulgaria’s Pirogov emergency hospital
Two people, aged 68 and 55, died in a fire in the early morning of November 27 at Pirogov emergency hospital in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia.
The fire was reported at 3.45am. Firefighting teams arrived at the scene, at a ward on the second floor of the hospital, and extinguished the fire.
The cause of the fire is being investigated. Bulgarian National Radio said that one theory was that the fire had been caused by a gas bottle explosion, but this was denied by the hospital.
Firefighting services chief Senior Commissioner Nikolai Nikolov said that about 100 patients were evacuated.
The deputy head of Pirogov hospital, Professor Nikolai Gabrovski, said that patients had been moved to other departments and wards and the hospital was functioning as normally as possible.
Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said that police excluded the possibility that the cause was a malicious act. He said that investigators were working on a theory that the fire resulted from high-pressure oxygen equipment.
Pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the case.
(Photo: Bin im Garten)
