The 2009 Taldykorgan fire occurred on September 13, 2009 when at least 38 people were killed in a fire at a drug abuse

Drug abuse

Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...

 clinic in Taldykorgan

Taldykorgan

Taldykorgan , formerly known as Taldy-Kurgan , is the administrative center of Almaty Province, Kazakhstan. It has a population of 118,400 . Most of the people are Kazakhs.-Education:...

, Almaty Province

Almaty Province

Almaty is a province of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Taldykorgan, which has a population of 118,400. The province itself has 1,603,700 people.-Geography:...

, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

. At least 10 others were re-hospitalised after the fire. Two of the dead were staff, the other 36 were patients.
The building dates from 1951. The cause of the blaze is currently unknown.

Fire

The fire started at 5:30 AM. The fire quickly spread through the single story Soviet-era building. Locked doors and barred windows blocked many escape routes, and screams were heard coming from the building for over 20 minutes. 40 people were evacuated from the building by rescuers. Ten people were taken to the hospital, where they were treated for severe burn injuries. Firefighters extinguished the fire after several hours. The Bodies of 36 patients and 2 workers were recovered from the building, and taken to the city morgue where relatives were witnessed wailing. One victim's sister criticised police for taking him away because "he was drinking too much. They said they were taking him away for six months to cure him of alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 but now he's dead". Another woman, this one named Fatima, stated: "I heard them screaming for 20 minutes. They were screaming, 'Save us, save us'". Relatives of the victims were warned by police not to talk to journalists, but a woman who lost her husband spoke to Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

 on condition of anonymity. Journalists were not allowed to speak to victims in the hospital, but one patient whose bed was by the window told journalists that patients at the drug clinic had been locked in when the fire started before he was discovered by a police officer and pulled from the window.

Reaction

Karim Massimov

Karim Massimov

Karim Qajymqanuly Massimov has served as Prime Minister in the Government of Kazakhstan since 10 January 2007.Massimov is fluent in Kazakh, Russian, Chinese, English, and Arabic. He studied in China and worked in Hong Kong where he headed Kazakhstan's trading operations. At the same time, he is...

, Kazakhstan's Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan

-Chairmen of the Council of People's Commissars:*Viktor Radus-Zenkovich *Mukhamedkhafiy Murzagaliyev *Saken Seyfullin *Nygmet Nurmakov...

, asked for an investigation to take place. The Emergencies Ministry later released a statement saying: "The fire had spread rapidly because fire fighters had been alerted late". Serik Akhmetov

Serik Akhmetov

Serik Nyghmetuly Akhmetov has served as the Minister of Transportation in the Government of Kazakhstan since President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed him on 25 September 2006. Minister Akhmetov previously served as Deputy Governor of Astana...

, the Deputy Prime Minister, is to fly to Taldykorgan.

A commission to investigate the fire was established. The building itself was visited by fire safety

Fire safety

Fire safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a fire that may result in death, injury, or property damage, alert those in a structure to the presence of a fire in the event one occurs, better enable those threatened by a fire to survive, or to reduce the...

 inspectors in May 2009. A number of violations were discovered, and the building was found to have no alarm system. Some violations had since been fixed, but an alarm system had still not been installed.