photo from CNN Mexico

Sixteen elderly people were killed and five others injured in a fire in a nursing home in Mexicali.

The fire occurred around 03:00 am this morning, Tuesday, June 23, 2015, in the asylum "Beautiful Sunset" located in the Ejido Queretaro, Mexicali Valley, the Municipal Public Security Secretariat reported.

Ejido residents reported the fire in the asylum, so Mexicali firefighters rushed to control it.

Lourdes Sanchez, vice president of the Cultural Welfare Society, said the asylum "Beautiful Sunset" housed elderly people rescued from the streets. 45 people were currently living there.

The injured were taken to the General Hospital in Mexicali, where they receive health care for smoke inhalation and/or first, second and even third degree burns to various parts of the body.

To extinguish the fire, five fire engines were needed, as well as four Red Cross ambulances in which the injured elderly were transferred to the emergency room of the hospital already noted.

The Attorney General of the State of Baja California, through the prosecutor's Joint Order, began the investigation and ordered a survey on the scene to determine the cause or causes of the conflagration that took the lives of 16 elders and left several injured.

The prosecutor of the Common Order, testified that fifteen elderly died in the nursing home and ordered them taken to the Forensic Medical Service facilities for them to be autopsied in order to know the exact causes that led to their deaths.

The mayor of Mexicali, Jaime Rafael Diaz, said of the asylum's 45 people, 23 made it out alive and five were reported to be debilitated, so they were taken to the General Hospital and an IMSS hospital.

"We are with the 23 seniors who made it out alive. We are about to transfer them to asylum Janitzio and five were taken to hospital because their health was delicate."