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 member of staff said on Friday.“There were two who were chained,” said nursing home worker Danuja 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 in (their) legs was brought back from a muddy field.”“Our intention was not to harm them. They were patients taking 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 added.His comments came amid growing public outrage over the treatment allegedly meted out to the residents at the home in in Anguruwatota where 13 people are now known to have died in the blaze which started late Wednesday.
The nursing home for people with mental health conditions lay abandoned on 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.
