Electrics blamed for Italy blaze

NAPLES, Italy -- An electrical fault is being blamed for a fire that killed 19 elderly patients at a prefab residential complex near Naples.

Nine others were rescued by nurses as the blaze, early on Sunday, spread quickly through the complex.

Many of the patients, who have physical or psychiatric ailments, were found dead in their beds, overcome by flames and choking smoke.

"It was accidental. By now it's almost certain that that's how it is," prosecutor Maria Carmela Polito, who inspected the destroyed home, told The Associated Press reported.

Two nurses managed to rescue nine residents at the home in Buccino, southern Italy, said Tullio Barra, squad leader of the fire department of nearby Salerno.

The buildings were made from flammable material and the firefighters had no chance by the time they arrived to the remote area.

"When we arrived, there was no one to save," said Rosario Pizzirusso, one of the firefighters.

Buccino Mayor Nicola Parisi said: "We searched the scene and saw the burned bodies. The fire broke out after midnight, so the people were sleeping."

The structure, made up of a few prefabricated block units, had been donated to Italy by France after a 1980 earthquake rocked the region, Parisi said.

Several of the residents had lived in the home since 1997, when it was opened, the Italian news agency ANSA added.