Fire breaks out in a nursing home at Sanlihe village of Lushan county in Pingdingshan city of Central China's Henan province on Monday.(Photo/chinanews.com)
Thirty-eight people were killed and six others injured in a fire at a rest home in central China's Henan Province on Monday night, local authorities said on Tuesday.
The inferno at a row of bungalows at privately owned Kangleyuan Rest Home in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, started at 7:33 p.m., according to a statement issued by the provincial publicity office on Tuesday morning.
The six injured, two of whom are in serious condition, have been hospitalized, said the statement.
President Xi Jinping ordered "all-out efforts" to treat the injured, comfort families of the dead and "properly handle" the aftermath of the fire. He demanded a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire.
Premier Li Keqiang also gave instructions, urging full efforts to rescue victims and console their family members. He called for officials to draw lessons from the accident, checking all potential safety hazards to avoid similar incidents.
The blaze swept through the complex, which is home to 51 senior citizens, before being put out at around 8:22 p.m.
Xinhua reporters saw gutted and collapsed buildings and frames of destroyed beds and wheelchairs scattered around at the site, which has been cordoned off.
The search and rescue operation involving hundreds of rescuers ended on Tuesday morning, said the statement.
"I was in my bed at the time. Suddenly, I saw a worker with the rest home run out of a room on fire and he shouted 'Run! Run!' to me, so I dashed out," said 78-year-old Guo Xin.
The 130-bed rest home divides its residents into three groups and houses them in separate sections: those who can care for themselves, those who can partially care for themselves, and those who are completely dependent on caregivers, Xinhua learned from the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA).
The scorched units housed the third group.
"They are bedridden or rely on crutches. They can't even eat by themselves," Guo said.
Guo noted the "bad quality" of the burned dorms, which he said were "built with iron sheets and without foundations." Resident Chen Runsheng complained that the rest home lacked caregivers. "You can't find them at night," said the 80-year-old man, who moved in two years ago.
Zhao Yulan, 82, said she was rescued from her room, which she shared with 11 people. "Only myself and one other roommate managed to get out," she said.
Relatives of some of the home's residents told Xinhua that it was very difficult to identify their bodies. "The bodies were so badly burned, we couldn't tell who was who," one said.
The county hospital is treating four slightly injured people, aged between 52 and 80, including Zhao, according to a doctor surnamed Lei.
Wu Zhongfeng, 71, sustained burns covering about nine percent of his skin and burns to his respiratory tract, Lei said. His daughter said he managed to escape through the window of the burning room by himself. "I was told it's the best rest home in the county," she said, adding that she paid 2,000 yuan (320 U.S. dollars) per month for her father's care.
The home's legal representative is in police custody and all workers with the home have been taken away to cooperate with the police investigation. Relatives of the elderly were told to take them home.
Two seriously injured people are being treated at the General Hospital of Pingmei Shenma Group in Pingdingshan City.
The MCA sent a team to Lushan on Tuesday morning to help deal with the aftermath and asked all its subordinate agencies to launch safety checks in order to prevent similar accidents in the future.
The rest home project was approved by local civil affairs authorities in late 2010. Located in the county seat of Lushan, it covers an area of two hectares and has floor space of 600 square meters.
China is facing grave challenges in caring for its rapidly aging population, which accounted for 15.5 percent of the total population by the end of 2014. This is expected to rise to 30 percent by 2050.
Latest figures show China had some 32,000 registered homes for senior citizens as of the end of March. It has around 220,000 caregivers in rest homes, while 10 million are needed.
