MOSCOW, Feb 1: A nursing home fire in northwestern Russia has killed at least 23 people, and officials said local authorities were slow to report the blaze.

The fire on Saturday in the town of Podyelsk in the Komi region followed similar recent deadly fires at other nursing homes across the country, underscoring the negligence, mismanagement, corruption and decaying infrastructure that has plagued Russia.

Konstantin Bobrov, a spokesman for the regional government in the Komi province, said in a telephone interview that the fire swept quickly through the wooden building in the town located some 1,200 kms northeast of Moscow.

He said three residents of the home were rescued and 23 died in the fire. Bobrov said the town had a fire station, but it could not cope with the size of the fire and more firefighters had to be called from a nearby town.

Grigory Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry’s branch for northwestern Russia, said on Vesti 24 television local authorities had been slow to report the fire.

He said firefighters found the building engulfed in flames when they arrived.

The Interfax news agency quoted emergency officials in Komi as saying that up to 25 people might have died. Officials would not comment on the possible cause of the fire. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched an investigation.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to conduct a thorough investigation and quickly report to him on the cause of the fire, the Kremlin said in a statement. Russia records nearly 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per capita rate in the US and other western countries.—AP