An elderly man has died after a fire broke out at a Hertfordshire care home.
Seven people were taken to hospital following the blaze at Woodlands View Care Home in Stevenage, and one remains critically ill.
A local authority spokeswoman said an investigation into the cause of the fire was under way, "but at the moment it appears there was a small explosion from an oxygen cylinder – and that is what resulted in the fire".
Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service sent eight fire engines to the care home after reports of a fire at about 4.30pm on Saturday.
Firefighters rescued five people from the building and assisted 10 other people in their escape.
There were 41 people in the home – which is made up of six separate buildings, each housing about 25 residents – when the fire broke out.
A spokesperson for the care home provider, HC-One, said: "staff at the home took immediate action to notify the emergency services and evacuate residents, staff and visitors to safety".
Offering their "deepest sympathies" to the family of the resident killed, they said that "the safety and wellbeing of residents is our number one priority".
Additional staff from elsewhere in the organisation have been drafted in to assist, and Woodlands View residents have been moved to other parts of the home, or sent to nearby sister homes.
The health care management company has more than 300 care homes across the UK.
Woodlands View Care Home was listed at "requiring improvement" in all areas, including safety, following a routine Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection carried out in June 2017.
The home – which provides residential, nursing and dementia care – changed hands in August last year, having previously been run by Bupa Care Homes.
A comment in the CQC report on safety said: "The service was not consistently safe. People's individual risks were assessed; however, this was not consistent and some needs were not risk assessed."
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