MARYVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A fire that killed three people at a retirement home was traced to a bedroom electrical outlet, and state fire marshals Thursday ruled the blaze an accident.
Special agent Bob Pollard said an appliance was plugged into the outlet, but fire damage made it unclear what kind. Investigators also could not tell whether the appliance or the wiring caused the blaze.
Lucille Law, 87; Molly Wright, 84 and Rosa Cheeks, 82, died in the fire Tuesday night at Home Away From Home Inc. retirement center in Maryville, about 15 miles east of Knoxville. Twelve others were injured.
Three victims remained in critical condition Thursday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's burn unit in Nashville. Three others were in stable condition at Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville.
The fire occurred in an upstairs bedroom of a converted ranch-style house built in the 1960s. The bedroom was occupied by three of the facility's 15 residents, but it was unclear whether those were the three who died.
The building had been licensed as a retirement home since 1988. It lacked a sprinkler system, but state rules do not require them for older facilities.
Pollard said the building had smoke detectors and alarms, but 56-year-old stroke victim Gary Crisp said he never heard an alarm. Crisp was in bed trying to go to sleep when a woman alerted him. He fled out a back door from his downstairs bedroom.
``I didn't take no hesitation about it,'' Crisp recalled from his hospital bed Thursday.
The fire comes four months after a blaze at a four-story nursing home in Nashville killed 15 residents. That center also lacked a sprinkler system.
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