KIEV, Ukraine, May 29 (UPI) — Seventeen people were killed in a fire at a temporary home for elderly people in a village about 23 miles northeast of Ukraine’s capital Kiev.
Ukraine’s emergency services ministry said the fire began early Sunday in a two-story building that was privately owned and was illegally housing 35 people. They were living there temporarily, officials said.
Police detained a man in charge of the building.
Around 150 firefighters were called to the fire, according to emergency services.
“Emergency services units saved 18 people, five of whom have been hospitalized with burns of varying degrees of severity,” the ministry said.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said the fire was a “terrible tragedy that has caused irreparable loss,” Ukrainian media reported
