A fire at the Muskoka Heights Retirement Home in Orillia on Monday killed two elderly residents and left five others in critical condition. (Frank Matys/Orillia Today)

Five seniors remain in critical condition following Monday's retirement home fire in Orillia, Ont., which killed two elderly residents.

Robert McLean, 90 and Hugh Fleming, 85, died in the fire that engulfed the Muskoka Heights Retirement Home in the small city about 135 kilometres north of Toronto.

Investigators from the Ontario Fire Marshal's office are trying to determine the cause of the fire but say it may take a while since the home was badly damaged and many of the areas they need to examine are now encased in a thick coat of ice.

The building that housed the retirement home at 327 Old Muskoka Rd. is also in a precarious state and officials are worried it could collapse at any time.

The fire broke out at about 6 a.m. Monday. Fire, police and ambulance crews rushed to the scene and managed to account for 21 of the 23 residents who were in the retirement home at the time. But the two elderly men died from their injuries. Eleven other people were taken to hospital.

As of Tuesday afternoon, only three patients remained at Soldiers' Memorial Hospital in Orillia.

Five others were sent to critical care units in other Ontario hospitals.

Residents taken to Barrie, Kitchener, Midland

Three were transferred to Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie. A single patient was taken by airlift to Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, while another patient was transferred to Huronia District Hospital in Midland.

Three others who were taken to the hospital in Orillia on the morning of the fire were treated and released.

Terry Dyni, director of community relations for the Orillia hospital, said privacy issues prevented him from releasing any further information on the condition of the patients or their names.

The fire has also raised the issue of sprinkler systems inside care facilities in Ontario.

Under current legislation, only newly built facilities are required to install sprinklers. The Muskoka Heights Retirement Home was more than 50 years old and did not have a sprinkler system.

John Galt, of the Fire Sprinkler Alliance, said the injuries and deaths in Orillia are "another needless tragedy that didn't need to happen. These are lives that could have been saved with modern sprinkler technology."

Advocates point to a tragic fire at the Meadowcroft seniors home in Mississauga, Ont., in 1995 that killed eight people

'Quite unfortunate'

In the wake of the fire, a coroner's inquest recommended all new nursing homes should install sprinklers. But it also said all existing nursing homes should be retrofitted with them.

Fourteen years later, the province hasn't acted on the second recommendation.

"There's never been a requirement that existing residences be retrofitted with sprinklers, which is really quite unfortunate for the safety of the residents," said Graham Webb, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly.

"Usually if there is sprinklers, there is not multiple losses of life. In this particular case, if it's the case, the fire started in one particular place and spread to other parts of the home. That could have been prevented, probably, by the use of sprinklers," said Webb.

Linda Jeffrey, MPP for Brampton-Springdale, has tried on several occasions to get a private member's bill through the Ontario legislature that would make sprinklers mandatory in all residences.

Jeffrey said when she heard of the tragedy in Orillia, she was saddened and then became agitated.

"I'm angry. I'm angry when these things happen and when we have technology that can make a difference. It makes me more certain that I should continue to bring this issue to the attention of the people of Ontario."