Sri Lanka nursing home worker says a ‘chained’ patient was among 13 fire victims

Audio By Carbonatix

GALPATHA, Sri Lanka (AP) — One of the residents killed in a fire at an unregistered nursing home in western Sri Lanka had been chained, while another was untied and saved, a staff member said Friday.

Nursing home worker Danuja Chathuranga's comments came as public outrage grew over the treatment allegedly meted out to residents at the home in Galpatha, where 13 people are now known to have died in the blaze that started late Wednesday.

“There were two who were chained,” said Chathuranga. “You only have to take your eyes away for one moment, they run away. One of them had gone one day with the chair he was tied (to) and was found entangled in a barbed wire fence. Another with sores on (their) legs was brought back from a muddy field.”

“Our intention was not to harm them. They were patients receiving psychiatric treatment. If they run away or fall into a pit, well or get run over by a vehicle, we have to take that responsibility,” he said.

The nursing home for people with mental health conditions was abandoned Friday. Glasses cases, medicines and reclining chairs lay strewn around the burned-out shell in the small town about 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the capital, Colombo.

The fire-ravaged nursing home and two other nursing facilities run by the same management are unregistered but government officials and institutions have worked with them.

Amala Rajapaksa, the homes' chief administrator, said residents include referrals from the state's main mental hospital, courts and police. Government doctors visit the residents to treat them.

Authorities transferred 21 fire survivors to another nearby home run by the same management.

The area's government welfare officer declined to comment on the arrangements, citing restrictions on state employees to speak to the media.

Rajapaksa said she has managed the homes for 22 years and that her late husband first started a home in memory of his late father. A few years ago, her stepson Isuru Anushka Perera, who is now in detention for negligence, became the director and popularized the homes through social media.

The home's TikTok videos show a resident doing martial arts moves and others singing and dancing to music with the director, who is known among social media followers as “Loku Ayya,” or older brother.

Rajapaksa said it was a struggle to care for residents until Perera's social media campaign attracted volunteers and donors. Relatives who had the means paid for their resident family members, but others who could not pay were also looked after.

It was not immediately clear how much funding the organization received or how it was used.

On Friday, a victim's family stood near the local hospital morgue awaiting the completion of an autopsy, so they could claim the remains. The father of the victim refused to speak to The Associated Press saying he did not wish to comment on the home's living conditions.

Dolawatta Mudiyanselage Chandra Rajapaksa, the mother of a 45-year-old resident living in another home run by Perera, said she had to keep her son there because she no longer had the strength to care for him.

“He is a mental patient. It's difficult for me to look after him, I am old and in my seventies and a patient myself," she said. She said she brought her son to the home having learned about it “on the phone.”

AP video footage showed the building gutted with charred furniture and equipment. Bodies lay nearby.

Local television showed images of firefighters, police and residents trying to contain the raging fire. Police and soldiers put those rescued on buses to be taken to a safe location.

According to police, 71 people were staying at the home at the time of the fire, of which 50 were rescued by neighbors, firefighters and police. Seven remained hospitalized Friday.

Chathuranga said it is thought the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit in wiring attached to a water pump.

“The fire initially caught a pile of mattresses and pillows and then quickly spread across the house,” he said, adding that the majority of the residents were rescued, but 10 people were caught in the fire and burned to death. Three others have since died in hospital.

Perera, the director of the home, has been arrested on suspicion of causing death through negligence. He appeared in court Thursday and was ordered held for a week pending an investigation.

Chathura Mihudum, director of Sri Lanka's National Secretariat for Elders, said the facility was not registered as a nursing home and had been warned to follow laws and guidelines. He said it was overcrowded, with enough beds for about 15 people in a space where 71 people were living.

Amala Rajapaksa said the institution was in the process of being registered.