A fire at a retirement home in the city of Manado on Indonesia's on Sulawesi island has killed 16 people, a local police official was quoted as saying on Monday by state news agency Antara.
Firefighters received the report of the blaze at 8:31pm Sunday at a nursing home in the North Sulawesi provincial capital Manado, said the city's fire and rescue agency chief Jimmy Rotinsulu.
He told Metro TV that the home's residents, most of whom were elderly, were trapped inside the building, adding that another three people suffered burns.
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.
The fire at the Werdha Damai retirement home was finally extinguished late on Sunday and authorities are still investigating its cause, police official Alamsyah P Hasibuan said.
Footage by news channel Metro TV showed the fire blazing through the home, turning the night sky orange, with residents appearing to help one elderly person escape from the burning building.
Deadly fires are not uncommon in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.
A fire tore through a seven-storey office building in Indonesia´s capital Jakarta this month, 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.
