Three dead, 8 hurt in Australia nursing home blaze

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At least three elderly people died and eight were in a serious condition after a fire ripped through a nursing home in Sydney on Friday in what emergency services called their 'worst nightmare'.

Hundreds of firefighters, police and paramedics raced to the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in the early hours of the morning after an automatic fire alarm went off to find a "chaotic and tragic" scene.

"We have seen those three people and have treated them with the dignity that they deserve," said New South Wales Police Superintendent Robert Redfern of the dead, ambulance officials adding that eight elderly people were badly hurt.

Redfern warned that with the injured so old and frail 'that figure may change'.

"To the best of my knowledge we have identified all of the people who were in the premises at the time," said the police chief.

"We have saved lives today by the outstanding work of the emergency services."

Police said they believe the inferno started in a bedroom and Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Greg Mullins said it would have been a terrible experience for the nursing home residents.

"This is a firefighters' worst nightmare. Turning up to a nursing home where there are elderly people who can't get themselves out of harms' way," he said.

"We had dozens of firefighters in breathing apparatus working in thick black smoke where they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces so imagine what it was like for the elderly trying to escape.

"Crews had to literally crawl on their hands and knees into every room in the complex, reach up under the beds, searching cupboards, anywhere where someone may have crawled away," he added.

"So it has taken quite some time because of the thick black smoke to confirm that we had all of the residents cleared."

Television pictures showed dozens of elderly people lying on beds or sitting in wheelchairs outside the home, some of them being attended to by paramedics.

Around 100 people were evacuated from the building and NSW Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Mike Willis said 80 people had been transported to nine Sydney hospitals.

"It was a chaotic scene that confronted us," he said.

Homicide and arson squad detectives were on the scene to investigate the cause of the blaze, but it was too early to speculate on what might be the cause.

"It will be a painstaking operation to gather all the forensic evidence," said Redfern.

Mullins added that the blaze had been extinguished but a precariously collapsed roof was making any clean up hazardous.

"Tiles were falling on the heads of firefighters as they tried to get the residents out and we are trying to make it safe," he said.