Fatal retirement home blaze traced to resident’s unattended stove

PHILADELPHIA – A retirement home fire that killed two women and injured several other residents was sparked by unattended cooking on an apartment stove, officials said Friday.

Two elderly residents were hospitalized in critical condition on Friday, a day after the blaze that drove dozens of residents from the city’s Plymouth Hall Satellite center.

The blaze broke out in the first-floor apartment of a resident who uses a wheelchair, city spokesman Kirk Dorn said.

“He wheeled away from the kitchen and down the hall, and that’s when it happened,” Dorn said.

Some residents were carried out on stretchers and others who went to the roof were helped onto aerial ladders. One woman was pulled to safety through a first-floor window.