Nursing home fire kills dozens
Beijing : A fire a nursing home in central China left at least 38 people dead, officials said yesterday, with bodies burned beyond recognition and wheelchairs reduced to charred frames. the fire broke out on Monday evening in an apartment building at a privately-owned old people's home in Pingdingshan, the state Xinhua News Agency said. "The bodies were so badly burned , we couldn't tell who was who," Xinhua quoted one victim's relative saying of the identification process.
Pictures posted online showed a thick column of black smoke rising from behind a petrol station near the facility. Aonther displayed the blackened frame of a building wish a burnt-out wheelchair in the foreground "Only myself and one other roommate managed to get out," survivor Zhao Yulan,82, who share her room with 11 other people, told Xinhua. The agency said the home had 51 residents and the blaze was extinguished less than an hour after it broke out. Two of the injured were in critical condition in hospital, the Work Safety Bureau of the central province of Henan said in a statement on its website.