Fire investigators identify care home failings
Print Edition
POOR building quality and lax safety management were two of the causes behind a deadly fire at a care home for the elderly in central China according to a preliminary investigation, the country’s top safety watchdog said yesterday.
The investigation into the fire, which killed 38 senior citizens and injured six others at the private-run home in Henan Province on Monday, showed that the burned bungalows had been built with steel sheets stuffed with flammable material, said Sun Huashan, deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety.
Sun also said that the fire exits of the burned buildings were poorly designed and the accident had also exposed the lack of safety checks, strict fire and electricity management, and an efficient emergency response at the care home.
Government departments are also to blame for the accident at the Kangleyuan Rest Home in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, as they had failed to properly enforce laws, said Sun.
Prosecutors have joined the central government’s team to investigate suspected crimes involved in the fire, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said.
The home’s legal representative is in custody and all the staff who were working there are being questioned by police.
The investigation team will pay special attention to crimes including dereliction of duty, abuse of power and self-seeking malpractices, the procuratorate said.
China launched an immediate safety check at nursing homes, welfare houses, kindergartens, child-care centers and hospitals across the country following the fire.
President Xi Jinping ordered an “all-out effort” to handle the aftermath and demanded a thorough investigation.
Two of the six people injured in the blaze are in a critical condition in hospital, according to a local government statement.
Many of the 51 elderly residents in the home were too frail to escape the fire, which was extinguished in less than an hour.
“Only myself and one other roommate managed to get out,” said survivor Zhao Yulan, 82, who shared a room with 11 people.
China’s population is aging rapidly, with 15.5 percent aged 60 or above by the end of last year, according to official statistics.
Nursing homes are becoming more common, but are often the last choice in a culture where the elderly have traditionally lived in multi-generational households. Care workers in such facilities are often outnumbered several times over by sick and elderly residents.
Survivor Chen Runde, 80, said that the home had too many residents and that staff “cannot attend to all of us.”
“We cannot find an attendant once night falls,” he said.
The home was set up by a local farmer and the residents were mostly old villagers whose children had sought jobs far from home as migrant workers.
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