Probe launched into deadly psychiatric hospital fire
An investigation is under way into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of three patients at an Athens psychiatric hospital in a fire on Friday, as efforts were scaled up to improve conditions at institutions across the country.
The aim of the probe, which was ordered by Health Minister Thanos Dimopoulos, is to determine why the patients were not evacuated from their ward at the Dafni Psychiatric Hospital.
The blaze started in a ward reserved for the facility’s 17 most dangerous patients, some of whom were bound to their beds, according to sources.
The patient alleged to have set the fire was said to be “extremely dangerous and aggressive.” But, contrary to earlier reports, he is not believed to be linked to the killing of another patient in May.
