Beijing: Eleven people were on Friday charred to death when an inhabitant of a senior citizens nursing home set fire to the facility in a row over USD 32 in northeast China.
The blaze ripped through the nursing home in the early hours at the in-patient building of the Lianhe Senior Nursing Home in Hailun city of Heilongjiang province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Eleven people, including 45-year-old Wang Gui, who set the building on fire, were killed in the blaze, the report said, adding that arson has been confirmed as the cause of the fire incident.
Wang, who was sent to the nursing home as he suffered from cerebral thrombosis, set fire to the building after getting angry over the loss of 200 yuan (USD 32).
He suspected that a fellow resident stole it, local officials said. Staff from the nursing home and Wang’s peers tried to calm him down but failed, the report said. So far the identities of 10 of the dead have been confirmed, and their ages range from 45 to 87, it said.
Two others were injured in the fire. There were 32 people in the in-patient building, which covers an area of 300 square metres, when the fire broke out.
A total of 283 people were living in the nursing home, which was built in 2005 to cater to the rural elderly in the city who have no source of income. (PTI)
