Arson is suspected in an early morning fire broke out in a group home for the elderly and mentally ill Monday, killing 10 people and injuring two dozen others in a blaze that the governor said was being treated as a crime.
Gov. Matt Blunt said investigators were treating the fire as suspicious.
“We’re not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive,” Blunt said.
The home had 32 residents and two employees inside when the fire was reported around 1 a.m. The dead ranged in age from early 20s to elderly. Another 18 people were taken to hospitals, and six were treated at the scene, authorities said.
One of the dead was a worker in the home, and the other nine were residents, Blunt said. Authorities did not plan to release names until Tuesday because relatives of two victims haven’t yet been notified.
Officials refused to say how the victims died or whether they had any warning. The home had fire alarms but no sprinklers.