ANDERSON, Mo. - An early morning fire broke out in a group home for the elderly and mentally ill Monday, killing 10 people and injuring two dozen others in a blaze that the governor said was being treated as a crime.
The blaze reduced the privately run Anderson Guest House to a skeleton of cinder blocks and stunned this rural community of about 1,800 people tucked in the Ozark hills about 35 miles south of Joplin.
Gov. Matt Blunt said investigators were treating the fire as suspicious.
"We're not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive," Blunt said.
The dead ranged in age from early 20s to the elderly. Eighteen people were taken to hospitals and six were treated at the scene, authorities said.
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