DEADLY BLAZE

5 Killed in Texas Elderly Home Fire

Fourteen others were injured.

Five people were killed and 14 injured by a fire in a Texas retirement home on Sunday. The 216 residents of the Wedgwood Senior Living Center in Castle Hills, a suburb of San Antonio, were forced to evacuate when the blaze ripped through the 11-story facility. A total of 150 firefighters from San Antonio and half a dozen other fire departments were needed to fight the blaze. Resident Carmen Johnson said she was told by firefighters to run from the building. “Run? I can’t even walk,” she said. “And I don’t know how he did it, but he carried me in his arms and went all the way to the fire escape and came down the fire escape.” Some 75 of the home’s residents are physically disabled and had to be rescued by firefighters from within the building. “After looking at the floors, it’s amazing we did not have more loss of life,” said San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood.