SYDNEY, Australia -- t a special bedside hearing, authorities Thursday charged an 88-year-old nursing home resident with murder and arson for the fire that killed 16 elderly invalids in the home.
The charges were leveled against Harry Hatton in the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he was being treated for smoke inhalation suffered in Wednesday's deadly blaze.
The judge denied bail and ordered Hatton to appear in a Sydney court Friday.
The fire, which also injured 51 of the nursing home residents, broke out just before midnight Wednesday at the Pacific Heights Nursing home in Sylvania Heights, a southern Sydney suburb.
The 16 who died -- invalids between 66 and 94 years old -- were trapped in their beds and died of carbon monoxide poisoning, police said.
Rescuers, including firefighters, ambulance officers and passersby, told of finding terrified patients clinging to their bed rails, unable to move.
'We had to pry their fingers away from their beds to get them out,' a rescuer said.
The 34-bedroom home had from one to three patients per room at the time of the fire. The dead were found scattered around the home with many dying in single rooms facing the front lawn.
Mrs. Kay Kidd, an employee of the home, said there were 64 patients and three nurses in the home at the time of the blaze, which was brought under control within two hours.
The 13-year-old building was not fitted with an automatic sprinkler system but had internal fire doors, smoke detectors and many fire extinguishers.
Sprinkler systems are not obligatory equipment in New South Wales nursing homes.
'The home was inspected for fire safety precautions recently and everything had been satisfactory,' said Michael Hardyman, administrator of home. He said it would take months before the residence would reopen, although there was little ewvidence of damage to the outside structure.
In Parliament, opposition leader John Mason accused the government of ignoring an official report warning on the danger posed by nursing home fires.
The report, prepared last year, indicated many homes were inadequately prepared for fires and did not have proper safety precautions, Mason said.
'Some of these hospitals have been described to me as fire traps which should be closed immediately,' he said.
