A tragic fire at a guesthouse in Romania has resulted in the loss of five lives, including that of a child. The incident occurred on the morning of December 26, 2023, in the village of Tohani in Prahova county. Emergency intervention teams were deployed to the scene, and it was reported that 26 people were staying at the guesthouse at the time of the fire.
Authorities said 18 people escaped the fire and two were being treated for burns.
The medical director for the nearby Ploiesti County Emergency Hospital, Andrei Ilinca, revealed that a 47-year-old woman, who suffered burns on 5% of her body, on the face and one hand, is currently hospitalised, while a 16-year-old teenager was transferred to the ‘Grigore Alexandrescu’ Hospital in the Capital.
He has ‘5% body surface area burn, no problems. It is under investigation. He remains hospitalized in the plastic surgery ward’, Dr Raluca Alexandru, spokesperson of the Bucharest hospital, told Free Europe.
On Tuesday afternoon, authorities said the blaze had been extinguished just before 1pm and the search for the missing people was continuing.
The affected area was about 1,000 square metres. There was no indication what caused the blaze.
Photos of the fire shared by emergency authorities show a near hollowed-out structure engulfed in flames as firefighters work to put it out.
Local authorities said that the guesthouse did not have the proper fire safety permits.
‘For the targeted objective, a substantive check was carried out in 2019, 6 irregularities were identified, one of which was fixed during the control and 6 warnings were issued,’ the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said.
‘At the time of the verification, no documents were made available to the inspectors to show the moment of commissioning, in order to establish the need to request and obtain the fire safety approval/authorization’, it added.
The authorities are continuing their investigations into this devastating event.
