Within the last several years, there have been many fires in mental institutions and retirement homes in the former Soviet Union. Sadly, many people have died during these emergencies. It raises reasonable suspicions, why such tragic events take place quite often. True, sometimes even best regulated institutions can have their share of unlucky accidents. However, when these tragedies occur repeatedly in different regions with the more or less same scenario, you should ask yourself about the possibility of the foul play. Firstly, greedy governments of the CIS could be just happy to get rid of mentally ill and/or elderly people, who burden the budget. Secondly, some cold-blooded officials could introduce «survival of the fittest» notion to human society. Incidentally, arson is a weapon of choice for criminal activities in the post-Soviet republics. Suspicious fires frequently destroy warehouses, markets, armories, etc. Apart from less probable accidents, competitors may set fire to each other or some embezzlers would carry out an arson to conceal their theft.

Horrible fire at a clinic for drug addicts in Taldykorgan (southeastern Kazakhstan), 2009, killed 38 people, including 36 patients (tinyurl.com/qacpvrv). A psychiatric hospital in Moscow was a scene of the similar fire, which also took off the lives of 38 people in 2013 (tinyurl.com/o3prxjm). These are just two examples of the blood-curdling row of deadly fires with possible criminal causes. In both cases, the decrepit hospital buildings were constructed in the early fifties of the last century. The locked-in patients were unable to save themselves. Of course, drug addicts and the mentally ill are not the cream of society. Nevertheless, it is our common duty to prevent such inhumane incidents from happening.