The blaze ripped through the facility in the early hours at the in-patient building of the Lianhe Senior Nursing Home in Hailun city of Heilongjiang province, local government said.
As many as thirty-two people were in the in-patient building, which covers an area of 300 square metres at the time of the fire, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
A total of 283 elderly people live in the nursing home built in October 2005. After the incident, the area around nursing home has been cordoned off, Xinhua reported.
The nursing home caters for the rural elderly in the city who have no source of income, it added.