UPDATE 2-Firms close, thousands lose heating in Balkans

(Updates numbers, adds details)

By Adam Tanner and Anna Mudeva

BELGRADE/SOFIA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans went without heating on Thursday, some hospitals closed and more factories were idle as the impact on the hardest-hit region in the Russia-Ukraine gas row grew.

Around 100,000 in Bosnia were left in the cold, while in Serbia 170,000 households had no gas heating and a hospital and several health clinics closed.

"We are managing somehow, but I don't know what will happen in case of the power cuts," Svetlana Petrovic, chief nurse at the hospital in the Serbian town of Gornji Milanovac.

The small hospital tried to shut down because its heating system operates on natural gas, but around 50 patients stayed put, using electric heaters to keep some rooms warm.

In Bulgaria, at least 65,000 households were without central heating when temperatures hit minus 10 degrees Celsius.

Many people turned to electric heaters, causing a run on stores and worries about the power grid's capacity.

"Electricity distribution will not survive another hike in consumption," CEZ (CEZPsp.PR) power utility, which supplies western Bulgaria and the capital Sofia, said in a statement.

Supplies of electric heaters also ran short in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, where citizens recalled the 1992-95 war when heating was often cut off. Demand for wood and coal has increased five-fold.

Companies across central and eastern Europe were forced to close when Russian gas flows via Ukraine ended on Wednesday.

"At the moment the whole economy is on its knees," said Konstantin Trenchev, head of Bulgaria's second-largest trade union Podkrepa, which organised a small demonstration in front of the Ukrainian embassy.

FACTORIES SHUT

Sofia halted gas supplies to 72 big industrial consumers and sharply lowered deliveries to another 153 companies. The government of the poorest European Union nation asked the EU for funds for new pipelines to ease its dependence on Russian gas.

An alumina plant in Bosnia, two Slovak car factories and a steel mill and a Hungarian car maker shut. Many producers had already been suffering amid the world financial crisis.