Agrigento: the fire at the hospital caused by the victim who lit a cigarette during oxygen therapy

A cigarette lit by a patient, hospitalized yesterday, caused a devastating fire in the medical department of the Fratelli Parlapiano hospital in Ribera, in the Agrigento area, causing the death of the same patient, a 53-year-old Romanian, who during an oxygen therapy session he took off his mask to smoke. The spark from the lighter generated the flames and the immediate explosion of the oxygen stain. For Costica Brustureanu, this is the name of the victim, a resident of Canicattì, there was nothing that could be done: the firefighters found him dead, while the fire brigade teams evacuated the other four hospitalized patients, transporting them to the emergency room , amidst flames and smoke that invaded the ward on the first floor of the hospital.

The timely intervention of several fire brigades, coordinated by the Agrigento command, avoided the worst. The flames have been put out and there are no other injured or poisoned people, but the entire department has been deemed unusable, while the one on the upper floor, where the surgery is located, was also evacuated for precautionary reasons. The hospital, a small facility, has a limited number of patients.

The prosecutor on duty at the Sciacca prosecutor’s office, who opened an investigation, ordered the seizure of the area affected by the flames, which was flooded after the intervention of the firefighters.

The fire occurred just before 8pm. Smoke also invaded other departments of the hospital. The hospital is manned by the police from the Sciacca police station and the Agrigento police station and by the Ribera carabinieri, who tried to reassure the relatives of the hospitalized people, who, upon hearing the news, rushed to the hospital.

Last December 9th another fire occurred in the Tivoli hospital, on the outskirts of Rome, causing three deaths and the evacuation of over two hundred patients. A fire started from a pile of waste at the back of the structure, in a basement, before spreading inside.