A fire broke out at a home for recovering addicts on Wednesday, killing three women and injuring 11, officials in Tennessee said.
The Nashville Fire Department confirmed the deaths on its Twitter account. It said 14 adults and a child were living in the house, which was operating as a residential recovery program.
There were no working smoke alarms or fire sprinklers in the home, officials added.
Police identified those who died as Kathleen Baird, 22; Tammy Nelson, 36; and Elizabeth Lopez, 35.
Three women died and 11 others, including a boy and a firefighter, were injured after a fire broke out at a Nashville home for recovering addicts (pictured) on Wednesday
In total, 15 people were in the home at the time of the fire – 12 were program residents, two were house managers and one was the juvenile son of one of the house managers, Metro Nashville police officials said.
Officials said in a statement that firefighters were called to the home shortly after 5.30am Wednesday and arrived to see flames coming from the structure and people outside who said others were trapped in the house.
Firefighters were able to remove everyone from the home, but three later died. Four others, including a boy, were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.
There were no working smoke alarms or sprinklers in the home, officials said
A firefighter also received a minor burn and was treated at the hospital.
Fire department spokesman Joseph Pleasant said the home was owned by Footprints to Recovery, which according to its website offers services to help people recover from drug and alcohol addiction. No one immediately responded to a message left with the organization’s program director.
Malcolm Lee Barrett and Pamela K. Barrett, the owners of the home, also run Barrett Realty, which owns dozens of properties in Nashville and has collected hundreds of code violations in a three-year period, according to city records cited by The Tennessean.
The Nashville home was owned by Footprints to Recovery, which according to its website offers services to help people recover from drug and alcohol addiction
Investigators remained on the scene into the afternoon. A photo posted on the fire department’s account shows a one-story brick house with a hole in the roof.
The cause is under investigation and authorities will look into possible negligence.
‘We are inspecting other properties that belong to Barrett Realty because they had a fatal fire and there were no working smoking alarms,’ Pleasant said.