MONTEVIDEO, July 8, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - All 10 elderly residents of an Uruguayan nursing home died Sunday after an early-morning fire from which the lone caretaker was the only person to escape, authorities said.

Eight women and two men died from the blaze at the six-roomed facility in the city of Treinta y Tres in the South American country's east, according to an official statement.

Firefighters found the main entrance shuttered on their arrival, it added. Once inside, they found a fire in the living room with smoke having spread throughout the facility.

A 20-year-old caretaker had managed to get out safely through a garage, said the statement.

Seven of the residents died on the scene from smoke inhalation, while three others were rushed to hospital in critical condition, but did not survive.

Karina Rando, Uruguay's public health minister, told reporters the fire appeared to be an accident, adding that a heating appliance was not ruled out as a possible cause.

"It was an establishment that was in a very good condition, which had undergone recent inspections with only minor remarks," Rando said of the facility.

The incident came just 10 days after a fire at another nursing home for the elderly and people with psychiatric disorders in the city of Melo, also in Uruguay's east.

In that case, a 77-year-old man and 72-year-old woman died in hospital after they were evacuated with 40 other residents.

Sixteen percent of Uruguay's 3.4 million inhabitants is over the age of 65, a proportion that is growing.