38 senior citizens killed, 6 injured as inferno rips through care home
Print Edition
THIRTY-EIGHT senior citizens were killed and six others were injured when a fire tore through a care home for the elderly in central China’s Henan Province on Monday night, local authorities said yesterday.
The blaze broke out about 7:30pm at the privately owned Kangleyuan Rest Home in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, a complex of bungalows and dormitories that was home to 51 senior citizens, the local government said in a statement.
Of the six people injured and taken to hospital, two are in a serious condition.
Fire teams succeeded in extinguishing the fire in less than an hour, but not before it had caused massive devastation.
Reporters from Xinhua news agency said they saw gutted and collapsed buildings, while blackened bed frames and charred wheelchairs were scattered around the site.
A search and rescue operation involving hundreds of people concluded yesterday morning.
Residents of the 130-bed facility were divided into three groups: those able to care for themselves, those needing some support, and those completely dependent on caregivers, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
All of the scorched units had been occupied by members of the third group, it said.
“I was in bed at the time,” said 78-year-old resident Guo Xin. “Suddenly, I saw a worker run out of a room that was on fire and he shouted ‘Run! Run!’ so I dashed out.”
Guo said that most of the people who perished in the blaze were bedridden. “They couldn’t even feed themselves,” he said.
Guo said the rooms that burned down were “bad quality,” adding that they were “built with iron sheets and without foundations.”
Another resident, 80-year-old Chen Runsheng, said there were never enough carers on duty. “You can never find one at night,” he said.
Zhao Yulan, 82, said she is lucky to be alive, after being rescued from a room she shared with 11 other people.
“Only myself and one other roommate managed to get out,” she said.
According to Xinhua, some of the victims were so badly burned, their families were unable to identify them.
“We couldn’t tell who anyone was,” a relative told Xinhua.
Zhao is one of four people being treated for non-critical injuries, said a doctor at the General Hospital of Pingmei Shenma Group in Pingdingshan.
Another is 71-year-old Wu Zhongfeng, who sustained burns to about nine percent of his body and damage to his respiratory tract.
Wu’s daughter said he managed to escape through the window of a burning room.
“I was told it was the best rest home in the county,” she said, adding that she paid 2,000 yuan (US$320) a month for her father to stay there.
12 people detained
Following an initial investigation into the cause of the deadly blaze, 12 people, including Fan Huazhi, the home’s 50-year-old founder, have been taken into custody.
Police are also keen to speak to three other people in connection with the incident, Xinhua reported.
Fan, a former farmer, said she opened the home after identifying a gap in the market. Many of its employees are her relatives and friends, Xinhua said.
Despite the facility being approved by local civil affairs authorities in late 2010, The Beijing Times cited the Lushan Civil Affairs Bureau as saying that the complex was unsuitable for use as a nursing home.
Its prefabricated form — comprising iron sheets and foam boards — made it a fire risk, the newspaper said.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs sent a team to Lushan yesterday to help deal with the aftermath of the fatal incident.
Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping called an “all-out effort” to treat the injured and comfort the families of the dead.He also demanded a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire.
Premier Li Keqiang reiterated the appeal, and urged officials to draw lessons from the accident so as to avoid similar tragedies in the future.
With its rapidly aging population, China is facing a growing problem of caring for its elderly. As of the end of last year, over-60s accounted for more 15 percent of the total population.
As of the end of March, China had about 32,000 homes for the elderly, employing 220,000 caregivers, far below the estimated 10 million workers needed.
Xinhua said the tragedy in Pingdingshan “highlights the pain in an aging China.” Urbanization has attracted more young people to towns and cities, leaving their elderly parents and children in their rural homes,” it said.
“Some (senior citizens) have no option but to live in poorly equipped nursing facilities for the rest of their lives,” it said.
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