Nursing home fire death toll rises to nine

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Darin Sullivan in Main

A ninth person has died after the Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire – a 90-year-old woman.

Neeltje Valkay died at Liverpool Hospital at 9.20am today, police said.
The eighth victim, Doris Mercy Becke, 96, died in Blacktown Hospital overnight.
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Alma Smith … one of the victims.
Mrs Becke had been in Blacktown Hospital’s intensive care unit since the blaze at the nursing home on Friday.

Police said she had suffered health complications from the fire.
List of victims who have been named:
Alma Smith, 73
Lola Bennett, 86
Ella Wood, 97
Urbana Alipio, 79
Caesar Galea, 82
Doris Becke, 96
Neeltje Valkay, 90

Two others who died in the blaze have not yet been formally identified.
NSW Health said nine people were in intensive care units around Sydney. Another 22 were in hospitals in various conditions.
Two people in Westmead Hospital were in a critical but stable condition this morning, but their ages and genders were not available.
An 83-year-old woman and a 67-year-old woman at Royal North Shore Hospital were both in a serious but stable condition.
Eighteen others were in a stable condition at hospitals including Westmead, Concord, Fairfield, Nepean and Blacktown.
A registered nurse who was employed by the home, Roger Kingsley Dean, 35, is in custody, charged with four counts of murder relating to the fire.
A NSW Police spokesman said he would not speculate on whether Mr Dean would face more murder charges.

Mr Dean is due to appear in Central Local Court on Thursday.
There were 87 residents in the home on Hambledon Road when the fire broke out. Two people died in their rooms, while a third died after being rescued from the home.

The other five victims all died in hospital.