A nursing home fire blamed on careless smoking filled the four-story building with thick smoke that killed nine elderly residents and sent nearly 100 to hospitals, officials said Friday.
The fire gutted the second-floor room where it began but did little damage to the rest of the brick building. The home does not have a sprinkler system; none was required when it was built in 1969."Even though we lost nine people, the potential was there to lose significantly more than that," said Fire Chief Thomas E. Gardner.