Fire at Nursing Home in China Kills 20 People, Owner Detained by Police

Twenty people were killed in a fire that broke out at a nursing home in China’s Hebei province, authorities said, adding that they had detained the owner of the nursing home as they investigate the cause.

According to Beijing’s state news agency, Xinhua, the fire in Chengde broke out on the night of Tuesday, April 8, at the nursing home and was put out at 11 p.m.

Of the 39 elderly residents living at the nursing home, 20 were confirmed dead by 3 a.m. the next day. The other 19 residents were sent to a nearby hospital to be examined, the state news agency said. 

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The cause of the fire is still being investigated by China’s Work Safety Commission, Xinhua said. 

In China, deadly fires are more common than in the United States due to less stringent building codes. In January, a fire at a vegetable market in Zhangjiakou City, north of Beijing, killed eight people and injured 15, The Guardian previously reported. 

A month before the vegetable market fire, nine people died in Rongcheng, an eastern city in the country, due to a fire at a construction site, according to the outlet.