Five patients being treated for COVID-19 in a St. Petersburg hospital died in a fire that may have been caused by a faulty ventilator — the same model that was among those sent last month from Russia to the US , reports said.

The blaze broke out Tuesday at Saint George’s Hospital, and all the the fatalities were coronavirus patients in its intensive care unit, a source told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency,

The fire may have been caused when a ventilator in that ward burst into flames, the source said.

“Five patients put on artificial ventilation machines were killed in the fire,” the source said, according to CNBC.

The ventilator model, the Aventa-M, was among those sent from Russia to the US in April to help hospitals overwhelmed by the first wave of patients.

The US State Department didn’t respond to comment on whether the ventilator model is being currently used in US hospitals, CNBC reported.

Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern, which controls the plant that produces the model, insisted its ventilators met all safety requirements and have been used since 2012 in Russia without concerns.

“We’re looking at different scenarios: the state of the (electricity) network, the medical institutions’ engineering infrastructure, the medical equipment, and compliance with fire safety rules,” the company said in a statement.

“We call on the media and other interested parties not to rush to conclusions and wait for the results of official checks.”

Roszdravnadzor, Russia’s healthcare watchdog, said that the Motherland would stop using the model “for now” as it investigates.

With Post wires

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