A fire at a retirement home in South Africa has left 18 people dead, emergency officials say. Several more were injured in the blaze, which broke out at around 2100 (1900 GMT) on Sunday, 50km (30 miles) south-east of Johannesburg. The cause of the fire, which gutted the Pieter Wessels retirement home in Nigel, is not yet known. Some 80 residents were safely evacuated to a church, local media said, and several received medical treatment. Remains The fire was reported by security guards who saw flames billowing from the building. "The building was engulfed in flames and emergency personnel leaped into action to rescue the aged from the burning building," emergency services spokesman Chris Botha said. Emergency workers searched the home after the fire was extinguished and found the remains of 17 victims inside. An 18th resident died of a suspected heart attack shortly after having been evacuated from the building, reports said. One man who reportedly suffered 40% burns in the fire was airlifted to a hospital in Johannesburg. A security guard told reporters he had run into the burning building to rescue elderly residents. "Maybe I saved eight or nine people but some of them were too big and I could not carry them," the guard told the news agency Agence France Presse. Source: BBC