Authorities Wednesday were trying to determine the cause of the Tuesday night blaze at Home Away from Home Inc., Blount County Sheriff Jim Berrong said.
The privately owned facility had 15 residents living in a converted one-floor house and offered assisted and unassisted living. The home did not have emergency sprinklers, authorities said.
One resident died after being trapped in the home, sheriff's spokeswoman Marian O'Briant said. Some of the injured were treated for smoke inhalation and burns, and one suffered a hip fracture. Three were hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday.
Emergency workers fighting the blaze helped residents out of the facility shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday as about a dozen ambulances converged on the ranch-style, brick building near Maryville, about 15 miles south of Knoxville.
A fire hydrant was not available so firefighters fashioned a makeshift pool by dumping truckloads of water, then used the pool as their main water source. With temperatures in the 20s, firefighters had to put salt in the water to keep it from freezing.
The fire took more than two hours to control. Most of the home's roof collapsed, and its bricks were scorched.
The fire came four months after a blaze at a four-story nursing home in Nashville killed 15 residents. That home, built in the 1960s, was exempt from state regulations requiring sprinklers.
It wasn't clear if the home that burned Tuesday fell under the state sprinkler exemption for nursing homes that haven't been renovated since 1994. State records indicate it had been licensed since 1988 to provide the lowest level of care for the elderly.
All the people living in the home ``had to be able to do for themselves,'' said Julie Ray, 30, who said she had worked at the home as a caregiver.
O'Briant identified two of the victims of the fire as Molly Wright and Lucille Law. Their ages were not immediately available. The identity of the third victim wasn't immediately released.
All the residents, the one employee on duty and a visitor have been accounted for, O'Briant said.
An official with Home Away from Home declined to comment Wednesday.
Bob Pollard, an agent for the state fire marshal's office in Nashville, said investigators resumed work at daybreak Wednesday interviewing residents and going through the debris.
Some residents told authorities they were outside smoking when they heard a popping sound and then saw fire.
``We have not found anything to indicate a large explosion,'' Pollard said. ``Often aerosol cans will lead people to believe an explosion has occurred.''
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