November 5, 2025, 10:02 amNovember 5, 2025, 10:02 am
At least eleven residents have died in a fire in the municipal old people’s and nursing home in the northern Bosnian city of Tuzla.
This was reported by the Bosnian news portal “klix.ba”, citing the city’s mayor, Zijad Lugavic. According to this information, 35 other people are being cared for in the hospital, three of whom are in critical condition.
The fire broke out on the seventh floor of the nine-story building on Wednesday night for an unknown reason. According to reports, there were people on the floor Patients in need of care and bedridden with severe dementia and cancer accommodated. Firefighters, police officers and rescue workers as well as home employees were among the injured.
Rescue workers on site.Image: keystone
Criticism of conditions in retirement homes
The retirement home in Tuzla was built in the 1980s, during the times of socialist Yugoslavia. The towering building in the architectural style of the time characterizes the cityscape of Tuzla, a former industrial center in the north of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Residents of the home and their relatives as well as some politicians in Tuzla However, they have been criticizing what they see as unacceptable conditions in the retirement home for years. Among other things, deficiencies such as humidity, bad food and rude treatment of the staff by the residents were discussed, wrote “klix.ba”. Another subject of criticism was that particularly seriously ill patients were accommodated on the higher floors.
City officials reportedly did not respond to the complaints. At the beginning of the year, the home management is said to have increased the prices for accommodation and care by up to 30 percent. (rbu/sda/dpa)