China vows safety crackdown after nursing home fire kills 38

China ordered nationwide safety checks of public buildings Tuesday after a fire at a nursing home killed dozens of elderly residents, leaving bodies burned beyond recognition and wheelchairs reduced to charred frames. The blaze left 38 people dead as it swept through a privately-owned old people's home in Pingdingshan, in central China, state news agency Xinhua said. "The bodies were so badly burned, we couldn't tell who was who," Xinhua quoted one victim's relative as saying. Pictures online captured a thick column of black smoke rising from behind a petrol station near the facility, while another showed a burnt-out wheelchair in front of the blackened shell of a building. Six people were injured in the blaze, which broke out on Monday night, including two who were in critical condition in hospital, according to a local government statement. Xinhua said many of the 51 elderly residents in the home were too frail to escape the fire, which was extinguished in less than an hour. "Only myself and one other roommate managed to get out," survivor Zhao Yulan, 82, who shared her room with 11 other people, told Xinhua. Twelve members of staff have been taken into custody as part of the investigation into the disaster and police are searching for another three, although the cause of the fire remains unknown. The incident sparked soul-searching in China, where enforcement of safety standards is often lax, with some property and business owners paying off corrupt officials to look the other way. "We will severely penalize authorities and individuals responsible for the fire and try to prevent similar disasters from happening again," Sun Huashan, head of a taskforce investigating the fire, said in quotes carried by Xinhua. The Ministry of Public Security Tuesday ordered an immediate check of nursing homes, kindergartens, child centers and hospitals across the country, the news agency reported. - 'Lonely and helpless' - China's vast population is ageing rapidly, with 15.5 percent aged 60 or above by the end of last year, according to official statistics. Nursing homes are becoming more common, but are often the last choice in a culture where the elderly have traditionally lived in multi-generational households. Care workers in such facilities are often outnumbered several times over by sick and elderly residents. Pingdingshan survivor Chen Runde, 80, told Xinhua the home had too many residents and staff "cannot attend to all of us". "We cannot find an attendant once night falls," he was quoted as saying. The home was set up by a local farmer and the residents were mostly old villagers whose children had sought jobs far from home as migrant workers, it added. The incident "highlights pain in ageing China", Xinhua said in a commentary, with care and services for the elderly still severely lagging in the country. "Urbanisation has attracted more young people to towns and cities, leaving their old parents and children in their rural homes," it said. "Some have no other choice but to live in poorly equipped nursing facilities... Instead of feeling lonely and helpless, the elders deserve a safe and comfortable place to live out their later years." In 2013, 11 nursing home patients burned to death in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang after one of them set the building on fire in a row over money. In February this year a worker in Hunan province killed three people and injured another 15 when he attacked residents and staff at a nursing home after a row with its owner. More widely, China has a dire industrial safety record, with accidents and fires common.