Fatal care home fire may have started in cupboard

A fire that killed 10 elderly nursing home residents in Scotland today is believed to have started in a storage cupboard, investigators said.

The residents of the Rosepark Nursing Home at Uddingston, near Glasgow may have been overcome by smoke as they slept.

The fire was earlier thought to have claimed 11 lives but police this afternoon revised the death toll to 10, blaming a mix-up over figures.

The Queen led messages of sympathy in the tragedy.

Confirming that the fire is believed to have started in a cupboard on an upper floor, Strathclyde firemaster Jeff Ord said: “All we can say at this moment is that a storage cupboard is being treated as the most likely source on the upper floor.

“But experience tells us never just to look for the most likely, as there are lots of other factors that will have to be taken into account.”

He said the fire had been “very small”, but generated large volumes of smoke.

“The fire damage itself has spread only three or four metres either side of the cupboard, so it is not extensive by any means,” said Mr Ord.

He agreed the victims may have died in their sleep, overcome by the smoke.

“It is speculation at this stage but it is highly possible and could be common in many house fires.”

The fire broke out just before 4.40am and a woman member of staff was first to raise the alarm.

The tragedy left 10 people dead and seven more being treated in hospital, three of them in a critical condition.

Two of the critical patients were being treated at Monklands Hospital in Lanarkshire and the third at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

The remaining four patients were being treated at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and at Wishaw General Hospital.

Twenty-three other residents of the home were evacuated and rehoused.

Firemaster Ord said the dead and injured were from bedrooms on the upper floor.