KIEV, Ukraine (AFP)— A fire caused by a gas pipeline explosion on Saturday killed one coronavirus patient and injured another at a hospital in Ukraine, the second such tragedy in a month, officials said.

Deadly fires are not uncommon in the ex-Soviet nation due to poor compliance with safety regulations and ageing infrastructure.

The fire was caused by a blast in a ward on the first floor of a five-storey hospital in the southwestern city of Chernivtsi, emergency services said.

"An oxygen pipeline exploded and caught fire," killing one person and injuring another, it said.

Twenty people were evacuated before the fire was put out 15 minutes after the explosion, it added.

Images of the ward showed burnt beds and chairs and blackened bed linen scattered on the floor.

Chernivtsi mayor Roman Klichuk said that the blaze took place "in one of the wards where patients infected with the coronavirus are being treated".

He said the injured patient was in intensive care with severe burns and "doctors are doing everything possible" to save his life.

Earlier this month, four people died in the southwestern city of Zaporizhzhya after a fire ripped through the intensive care unit of a hospital that was treating coronavirus patients.

In January, 16 people were killed in a fire at an illegal nursing home in the eastern city of Kharkiv.