Penza, 5 August 2015. PenzaNews. A building on Lermontova street in Penza that became a focus point of a large fire outbrake at night into Monday, August 3, was identified as the construction site of a new birthing center for the Burdenko regional clinical hospital.
Based on the photos made by the hospital patients who witnessed the event, the raging fire spread over no less than 100 sq. meters of space.
According to the witnesses, the video shows only the early outbreak of the fire: the fire crews arrived to the scene at a later time, when flames reached over several meters tall.
According to the information provided by the EMERCOM department for the Penza region, the fire was caused by thermal insulation, and the fire took 13 firemen and four vehicles to extinguish.
Nobody was injured in the incident, even though the outbreak was located close to the regional hospital wing that is constantly occupied by patients and medical staff.
A dedicated committee is currently working on establishing the reasons behind the outbreak.
At the same time, PenzaNews agency failed to obtain any comment on the situation from any representative of the Penza region Health Ministry that monitors the construction process of this socially important object.
In particular, the secretary of the ministry told a PenzaNews journalist that the acting minister Vladimir Stryuchkov is on a business trip, the acting first deputy minister Yuri Zinovyev is not present in the building, and the acting deputy minister Oksana Chizhova has just arrived from her holiday and was unable to answer any questions.
Tatyana Manukhina, senior specialist 1st level of the organization department in the Penza region Ministry of Health who acts as a press secretary for the institution, was also unavailable for comment.
All other officials who were listed as possible contacts on the birthing center fire incident were unavailable as well: their colleagues said they will return to offices only on the next day.
As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, the construction process of the new birthing center in Penza had been behind the schedule. On July 31, the acting Minister of Healthcare of the Penza region Vladimir Strychkov had visited the location with an inspection and expressed his belief that the construction workers would gain up in August and “work within the set schedule.”
