Fire at Romanian Hospital Kills Seven Patients

Seven patients have died after a blaze broke out on Friday morning at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in south-eastern Romania.

"All the victims were in their beds. Only patients died, not medical staff," said Colonel Mihail-Cristian Amarandei, head of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations in Dobrogea, which was called in to help deal with the blaze.

Several locals gathered at the entrance to the hospital shouting: "Murderers, people are dying because of you!" Prosecutors have opened a criminal case for culpable homicide.

"It is an unfortunate incident. Specialists will establish the cause," said interim Health Minister Cseke Attila.

More than 125 firefighters were called in from nearby cities to deal with the blaze, the tenth in the past year in Romanian hospitals.

In February, a fire killed four patients at a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Bucharest.

According to a report by the Department for Emergency Situations, fire warning installations at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Constanta did not work at the end of last year.

Amarandei also said that there was a check at all hospitals in Constanta in February and that problems were found at the Infectious Diseases Hospital.

But the manager of the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Stela Halichidis, insisted that any problems at the hospital were fixed after a check-up in February and that the institution's electrical generators were not overloaded.

"I was always afraid about a problem like this, I always made sure everything was in order," Halichidis stated.