On the night of January 20, a fire broke out at the Ivanovic Home for the Elderly in the Veliki Borak neighborhood of the Belgrade municipality of Barajevo. Eight people died and seven were injured, BIRN reports.
At the scene of the accident, BIRN has learned, investigators were able to identify only two victims – Natalija Ivanković and Đurđevka Ilic.
For the other six victims, due to the damage to their bodies in the fire, DNA analysis was performed, which determined their identities: Mila Mišić, Vesna Stepanović, Zoran Stevanović, Radiša Petronijević, Milan Dimitrijević, Velibor Živanović.
According to BIRN's information, at the time of the fire, more than thirty residents were staying in the Ivanovic home, more than allowed under the facility's operating license.
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Although one nurse should be on duty at night and another during the day, on January 20th there were no nursing staff at the Ivanovic home.
According to the investigation, the nurse, who was supposed to be on duty that night, stayed at home to prepare for the baptism of St. John.
The only person supervising the home's users was the owner's son, Miloš Ivanović, who is unemployed, without adequate qualifications for the job, and previously convicted of engaging in unfounded business activity, or for working in another home for a similar purpose.
A cigarette or lighter is suspected to be the cause of a fire at a home in Barajevo.
Smoking is prohibited by law in these homes. However, investigators BIRN spoke to say that some of the residents were smokers and that, despite strict regulations, they had a designated smoking room, and according to investigators, some residents often used cigarettes in the hallway and even in the bedrooms.
The first floor housed women, while the attic housed bedrooms for mostly men. According to BIRN's findings, most of the occupants suffered from neurological and psychiatric illnesses, and some of them were tied up when they threatened to escape or harm themselves or others.
In one of the attic rooms, among the occupants, according to documentation seen by BIRN journalists, there was also a heavy smoker, and the home's owners were unable to resolve the issue. According to eyewitness accounts, the man, who was also a victim of the fire, spent the night nervously smoking in the hallway and in the bedroom, and it is suspected that he set the bed on fire with a cigarette or a lighter. The fire quickly spread.
Firefighters were called at 03:32 a.m. When they arrived at the scene, thirteen minutes later, the fire had already spread to an area of 150 square meters, out of a total area of 500 square meters, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
The injured people were mostly rescued from the fire by the son of the homeowner until the firefighters arrived. On the lower floors, according to the firefighters we spoke to, immobile women were waiting for rescuers in beds and wheelchairs in a cloud of smoke and soot, doused with water from fire hoses pouring down from the attic.
The investigation into the fire in Barajevo is still ongoing, three people have been arrested
On the same day, after the fire was extinguished, forensic experts began an investigation. The prosecutor on duty at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade ordered the police to arrest the suspects on suspicion that they had committed a criminal offense of "serious offense against public security." Gorica Ivanović, director of the "Ivanović" Home for the Accommodation of Adults and the Elderly, was detained as the person responsible. Her husband, retired police officer Aleksandar Ivanović, was also arrested, as was their son Miloš Ivanović, who is suspected of having been entrusted with the management, supervision and other tasks in the aforementioned home.
Initially, due to a lawyers' strike, the suspects did not have a defense attorney, so one was assigned to them ex officio. They were also ordered to be detained for up to 30 days, to prevent them from influencing witnesses, to prevent them from repeating the crime, and to prevent public unrest.
In the meantime, the suspect's family has hired defense attorney Nemanja Srzentić. Attorney Srzentić is known to the public as the attorney for ruling party MP Vladimir Đukanović in the case against Radar weekly journalist Vuk Cvijić.
The Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs issued a work license to the Home for Accommodation of Adults and the Elderly Ivanović in 2014 for a period of five years, stating that the capacity of the home at that time was 16 users.
Their license was extended in June 2021. Darija Kisić Tepavčević was then at the head of the ministry.
The news that eight people burned to death and seven were injured in a fire in Veliki Borak was followed by a statement from Minister Nemanja Starović that the burned-down home for the elderly "had all the necessary permits."
A few hours later, journalists discovered that the institution's account had been blocked since February 2020 – today, according to data from the National Bank, the block amounts to almost 100.000 euros (11,65 million dinars).
The next day, January 21, the ministry announced that there were 34 residents in the home at the time of the fire. According to the same ministry, the home had a license for a maximum of 29 residents, or thirteen more than under the previous permit.
On the same day, the inspection banned the operation of the "Ivanović" home.
According to BIRN's knowledge, the Department for Combating Corruption of the VJT in Belgrade together with the police are collecting data on the case.
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