Fire at Indonesia retirement home kills 16 people

A fire at a nursing home on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has killed 16 people and injured three others, according to the police.

Jimmu Rotinsulu, the head of the fire and rescue agency in the city of Manado, said firefighters received a report of the blaze at the Werdha Damai retirement home at 8:31pm (12:31 GMT) on Sunday.
“There were 16 deaths; three [people] had burn injuries,” he told the AFP news agency.

Many bodies of the victims were found inside their rooms, Jimmy said, adding that many of the elderly residents were likely resting in their rooms in the evening when the fire broke out.

Authorities managed to evacuate 12 people – all unhurt – and transfer them to a local hospital, he said.

Footage aired by local broadcaster Metro TV showed the fire engulfing the nursing home, while locals helped to evacuate an elderly person.

The blaze was the latest report of a deadly fire in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.

Earlier this month, a fire tore through a seven-storey office building in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, killing at least 22 people.

In 2023, at least 12 people were killed in the country’s east after an explosion at a nickel-processing plant.