Twelve rooms at an old hospital where elderly and unemployed people stayed were destroyed in a fire, resulting in one fatality, Mpumalanga police say.

An inquest docket has been opened to probe the tragic death of an old man, estimated to be 70 years old, who was discovered after the fire that partly burnt the old Volksrust hospital on Monday.

“An emergency team comprising police, ambulance personnel as well as firefighters were summoned to the scene and discovered an old man inside one of the rooms motionless. The old man was unfortunately certified dead at the scene by the medical personnel. The cause of the blaze is unknown at this stage and will be investigated,” said Brig Leonard Hlathi.

The provincial commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lt-Gen Mondli Zuma, has conveyed his condolences to the family of the old man.