Nursing Home Fire Kills Seven

Fire broke out at a four-story nursing home overnight, killing seven residents and injuring at least 25, authorities said early Friday.

Assistant Fire Chief Lee Bergeron said at least 25 residents were being treated at hospitals for burns and smoke inhalation. Twenty patients were critically injured.

"This is like the worst-case scenario for any firefighter in the country, a nursing home fire," said Deputy Fire Chief Kim Lawson.

The six-alarm fire started late Thursday night at the NHC Healthcare Center of Nashville. It took firefighters about an hour to contain the blaze.

Although investigators know the blaze started in a patient's room, they do not know its cause, but do not believe it to be suspicious, reports Jamie Reese of CBS affiliate WTVF.

Most of the 120 patients at the nursing home couldn't walk and several couldn't talk, so firefighters had to climb four flights of stairs and carry many of the patients out of the building. Some on upper floors were put on backboards and carried down ladders.

Three firefighters were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation and others were treated at the scene.

It was the biggest fire in memory in Nashville, and required help from surrounding counties, reports Reese: 55 engines and trucks, and at least 150 firefighters responded.

One of the people who was killed in the blaze was the 96-year-old mother of a deputy chief in the fire department who was on the scene trying to fight the blaze.

There are several hospitals near the nursing home, so some of the patients were taken directly from the home to one of the medical facilities.

The area of the concrete building where the patients live has no sprinkler system, said Michael Usery, a regional vice president of the company that owns the center.

"This is an older facility, there are not sprinklers in the area where the fire occurred," Usery said. He said the fire alarm system sounded.