2024-08-15 21:47:00
An unextinguished cigarette started the fire in the illegal home for the elderly in Bankya, which broke out on Wednesday around 4 p.m. This is the leading version of the investigators. The manager of the pseudo-institution was detained for 24 hours.
The case is being investigated for arson, explained Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov. He pointed out that the materials that other institutions have will be included in the arson investigation. The inspections found administrative violations and were handed over to the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of the Interior. The deadline was 2 months.
“Questions probably arise, who should close this illegal home? These are questions for other institutions and ministries”, explained Kalin Stoyanov. In addition to the death of a man, three people were injured in the fire. One is life-threatening.
An employee at the home witnessed the fire. Lilia is one of the two women who took care of the elderly. The fire broke out in the dead man’s room from a cigarette, with which he sometimes fell asleep, she told Nova TV.
Shortly after serving lunch to the elderly in her care, Lilia heard cries for help. “While I was laying out the clothes, the woman who hired me called out: “Lilia, come and see that it’s burning”, and from a cigarette. He smoked a lot of cigarettes. We couldn’t save anything,” said Lilia.
In the beginning, she took care of 10 people, but after the inspections, they started to decrease. On Wednesday, there were four left. “Two men and two women. They were sick, in bed,” the woman said. The remaining three will be accommodated in two homes for the elderly, it became clear after a site visit by the executive director of the Social Assistance Agency, Veselin Kozhuharov, and experts.
On Thursday, Deputy Social Affairs Minister Lazar Lazarov announced that the hospice is owned by a company that has a registered boarding house for animals, and at another address.
Already at the end of June, during an inspection by the Agency for the Quality of Social Services, it was established that the home in Bankya was operating without a license. The inspection was at the request of another administration and with the assistance of the SDVR due to a refusal to provide information. The agency alerted all authorities, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Social Affairs announced. According to the regulations, the agency does not have the authority to suspend the activities of companies that operate without a license, they said.
The building that houses the hospice was formerly used by the homeless and was once a home for orphans. It is a cultural monument.
The home had been operating for several months and was about to be closed, the son of the owner of the boarding house, Georgi Georgiev, told bTV. “It was even closed, they were waiting to take two or three people for the people to take them home. It’s not licensed like 90% of these nursing homes because it’s unenforceable and my mom gave up on the thing. The building cannot meet the requirements,” he said. Georgiev and his mother are local and familiar in Bankya.
The town hall in Bankia says that they found out about the illegal hospice only after the accident. “Unfortunately, the law does not require that the local authority be notified when such homes are discovered on the territory of the given municipality, in the case of the district. We could take a position on this issue, the way of using the building is according to the ZUT. We would have found a way when there is unregulated activity”, they say from there.