At least 22 people were killed after a fire tore through an illegal nursing home in Siberia, Russia.

The blaze gutted the two-story wooden building, which was not officially registered as a care home, last night in Kemerovo.

Daunting video footage showed flames consuming the building and later the blackened ruins as dozens of firefighters work through the rubble.

The fire was extinguished early Saturday.

Emergency services say that at least 22 people have died in the fire, rising from 20 earlier today.

Officials suspect the blaze broke out due to a broken boiler (Picture: AP)

The death toll inside the illegal care home has steadily risen today (Picture: AP)

The blaze burned into the night (Picture: AP)

At the time, the BBC reported that six people had been injured.

It was not clear how many people lived in the privately run facility or how many were inside when the blaze broke out.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations told the TASS news agency: ‘At the site of the fire, rescuers continue to work on the rubble in conditions of low air temperature.’

The Investigative Committee said a man who rented the building has been arrested and charged with violating safety regulations resulting in multiple deaths.

The unregistered home was set up by an evangelical pastor to give older homeless people food and shelter amid the freezing winter.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was a ‘temporary residence for persons in a difficult life situation’.

Sergey Tsivilev, governor of the Kuzbass region in Siberia, said many homes for the elderly operate without authorisation in Russia.

More: Lifestyle

This means they are counted as private property and not subject to health and safety inspections.

‘We will inspect all institutions of this type, primarily private ones,’ Tsivilev said.

‘The inspections will be completed within a week.’

Kemerovo saw one of the deadliest fires in Russia in recent years when a fire ripped through the Winter Cherry shopping complex in 2018.

At least 60 people were killed – more than half of which were children – according to officials.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

The blaze gutted the illegal wooden nursing home.