Categories
· Fires/Injuries
non-USA, by Country
· Latvia
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Jump to full article: AP, 2007-02-23
Author: GARY PEACH, The Associated Press
Intro: RIGA, Latvia - Faulty electrical wiring may have sparked a catastrophic fire that raced through a home for the disabled in western Latvia on Friday, leaving 25 people dead or missing, rescuers said.
By Friday evening, rescue workers had pulled 20 bodies from the badly charred three-story building in Alsunga, a town about 110 miles west of Riga, the capital. Five others were missing and presumed dead, said Inese Veisa of the State Fire and Rescue Service.
Some 90 people, most of them mentally or physically disabled, were inside the 19th-century brick manor when the fire broke out just after midnight Friday, rescue officials said. . . .
Alternately, investigators said, the fire might have been caused by someone smoking in bed. Due to the freezing temperatures residents were reluctant to smoke outdoors, as required.
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