GALPATHA, Sri Lanka – A devastating late-night fire at an unregistered mental health nursing home in western Sri Lanka has left 13 people dead, triggering widespread public anger over systemic negligence and alleged abusive treatment of vulnerable residents, local officials and staff confirmed this week.
The blaze broke out around Wednesday night at the facility in Anguruwatota, a small town located 34 miles southeast of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. At the time of the fire, 71 people were residing on the property – a gross overcapacity that government inspectors had previously flagged, according to national elder care authorities. After the fire, the site sat abandoned Friday, with charred personal items including eyeglass cases, prescription medication and recliners scattered across the blackened, gutted building shell. Footage captured by the Associated Press shows bodies recovered near the ruins, while local media footage documented local residents, firefighters and law enforcement working desperately to contain the fast-spreading inferno.
In an on-the-record interview Friday, a frontline staff member at the facility, Danuja Chathuranga, revealed a disturbing detail about the fatal incident: two residents were chained to fixed objects inside the building when the fire broke out. One of those chained residents died in the blaze, while the second was successfully untied and evacuated by staff, Chathuranga said. He defended the facility’s practice of restraining residents, arguing that the nursing home housed patients undergoing ongoing psychiatric treatment who were prone to wandering off.
“You only have to take your eyes away for one moment, they run away,” Chathuranga explained, recounting past incidents where residents had wandered into dangerous areas. “One of them had gone one day with the chair he was tied to and was found entangled in a barbed wire fence. Another with sores in their legs was brought back from a muddy field. Our intention was not to harm them. If they run away and fall into a pit, a well or get run over by a vehicle, we have to take that responsibility.”
Chathuranga told reporters the fire originated from an electrical short circuit in wiring connected to the facility’s water pump. The flames first ignited a nearby stack of mattresses and pillows, then spread across the overcrowded building at a speed that left many trapped. Neighbors, first responders and police managed to rescue 50 of the 71 residents; 10 were killed immediately by the fire, and three more later succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Surviving residents have since been transferred to a licensed, nearby care facility, and seven remain hospitalized for treatment of fire-related injuries.
The nursing home’s director has been arrested on charges of negligent homicide, and was ordered held in police custody for a week by a local court on Thursday as investigations proceed. Chathura Mihudum, director of Sri Lanka’s National Secretariat for Elders, told reporters the facility was never legally registered to operate as a nursing home, and government officials had already warned its management to comply with national care regulations on prior inspections. The property was only built and zoned to accommodate roughly 15 residents, yet 71 people were packed into the space at the time of the fire, Mihudum confirmed. Amala Rajapaksa, an administrator at the unregulated home, countered that staff had been in the process of completing official registration as requested by government regulators.