The Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv has arrested a married couple suspected in the deadly fire in an illegal Kharkiv nursing home that killed 15 residents on Jan. 21 for two months with no right for bail.
According to the Ukrinform news agency, the court made a decision on Jan. 23, putting Viacheslav and Olga Kravchenko who allegedly owned the retirement home under arrest as a pre-trial restriction.
Viacheslav Kravchenko has denied wrongdoing, while Olga Kravchenko neither denied nor agreed with the accusations.
In what turned out to be Ukraine’s deadliest building fire in nearly seven years, 15 elderly residents of the nursery home in Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people located 460 kilometers to the east of Kyiv, were found dead. Nine more out of 33 residents were hospitalized, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
According to the prosecutors, the building had no signs of fire safety, and no fire extinguishers were found inside.
The tragedy might point to a large-scale issue, as there are many retirement homes that operate illegally throughout the country, Ukraine’s Ombudswoman Ludmyla Denisova said on Jan. 21. Since they are not registered officially, unlawful nursery homes and their fire safety measures are impossible for the government to regulate.
According to the investigation, Viacheslav Kravchenko rented a two-story private building from another suspect, Slavik Akopyan, where the retirement home was located. His wife allegedly ran the enterprise.
The retirement home had no legal documentation. But Kravchenko and his wife have a registered non-profit organization, which they may have used as a cover to manage the care facility.
However, during the hearing, Viacheslav Kravchenko said he had sublet the building to his wife and had little to do with the enterprise that she ran.
Olga Kravchenko apologized to the families of the victims, saying that nobody had an intention to cause the tragedy, as she was crying in the court.
The prosecutors have previously issued notices of suspicion to four suspects. Aside from the Kravchenkos and Akopyan, a manager that allegedly worked at the nursing home is suspected of wrongdoing.
The law enforcement identified three possible reasons for the fire: arson, careless use of fire or electric appliances, or electrical circuit.
President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the scene of the fire on Jan. 22. He called the deaths a “terrible tragedy” and declared Jan. 23 a day of mourning.
The accident appears to be the deadliest building fire in Ukraine since the Trade Unions House fire in the southern city of Odesa killed 42 people in 2014.
