A devastating blaze at a residential care facility in western Sri Lanka has claimed the lives of 12 residents and left eight others with injuries, national police confirmed in an official briefing on Thursday.
The inferno broke out after hours on Wednesday at the facility located in the quiet town of Anguruwatota, roughly 50 kilometers east of the country’s capital Colombo. First responders and emergency teams were able to evacuate and save 51 residents from the burning structure, according to police spokesperson Fredrick Wootler. He added that the facility, which primarily serves elderly patients, also provides housing and care for people living with mental health conditions.
In the wake of the tragedy, authorities have taken the nursing home’s director into custody. The arrest comes on allegations that the deaths were a direct result of negligence on the part of facility leadership, including suspected failures to maintain functional fire safety equipment and adhere to emergency evacuation protocols. A full formal investigation into the cause of the fire and any wider institutional failures is already underway.
Visual footage captured by the Associated Press shows the full scope of the destruction: the two-story building has been completely gutted by the flames, leaving only blackened, charred remains of furniture, medical equipment, and interior structures. Victims’ bodies were recovered from the site in the immediate aftermath of the blaze.
Local Sri Lankan broadcaster Hiru TV released on-scene footage showing a massive emergency response, with dozens of firefighters, police officers, and local civilians working together to bring the fast-spreading blaze under control. Videos show security forces and military personnel assisting evacuated residents, many of whom are elderly, to board waiting buses that transported them to temporary emergency shelter at a nearby safe location.