Category Archives: Nursing Home/Senior Living

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Webster Groves, MO – Fire in senior living community contained by sprinkler system; No residents or staff injured

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. last Wednesday, a fire broke out at the Laclede Groves Senior Living Community in Webster Groves. The facility is located in the 700 block of South Laclede Station Road.
The call came out as a 2-alarm fire. When firefighters arrived on scene they found heavy smoke on the second floor of the facility. The fire had been contained to an apartment on the second floor by the sprinkler system.  Firefighters evacuated residents from the second floor, and later from the rest of the building.  The second floor was damaged by fire, smoke, and water.  Residents are currently being relocated to other facilities till investigators can assess the damage. No residents or staff were injured in the fire. One firefighter was transported to the hospital for a medical evaluation. 

 

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential, Residential High Rise

Oklahoma City, OK – No injuries after fire at high rise retirement home is put out by sprinkler system

A northeast side retirement home has been partially evacuated due to a high-rise fire.  The Oklahoma City Fire Department responded around 12:18 p.m. on Sunday at the Senior Living Center in the 1200 block of N. Kate Avenue.  Upon arrival, heavy smoke was reported.  Officials said the fire ended up being a mattress in a room on the fifth floor. Some residents evacuated, and others sheltered in place.  The fire was put out, while a sprinkler system continued flowing and crews worked to control the water.  Firefighters said no injuries have been reported.  Less than an hour later, residents were allowed back in their rooms except for those who live on the fifth floor.  Automatic sprinkler systems save lives,” said Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson. “Water damage is much preferred over larger fires and fatalities from smoke.”  No other details have been released at this time.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Cumming, GA – Fire at assisted living facility controlled with help from sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Nearly 40 residents of an assisted living facility are safe after being evacuated due to a fire.  According to Forsyth County Fire Department spokesperson Jason Shivers, the fire happened at Gracemont Assisted Living. The fire apparently originated in a ventilation fan in a storage room for the facility’s dining hall. The fire itself was kept under control by the sprinkler system and a maintenance worker who took hold of a fire extinguisher. However, the water damage from the containment process will mean the building is unavailable for some time until crews can make repairs. Shivers said the fire was not considered suspicious and said that no residents, staff or firefighters were injured. The fire department is now working with the facility and the Red Cross to provide assistance to 38 residents who were forced out of their homes.

 

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Oakland, CA – Fire on 10th floor of senior care home suppressed by sprinkler system

Firefighters were called at 2:27 a.m. to the Northgate Terrace senior homes, located at 550 24th St. between Northgate and Telegraph avenues and a block east of I-980. The blaze was contained to one residence on the 10th floor of the 12-story building, Paganelli said.  “It certainly had to be scary for the residents waking up in the middle of the night with the place filled with smoke,” Paganelli said.

As a precaution, the 10th floor was evacuated, and about two dozen people could be seen on the ground floor of the building. A sprinkler system inside the apartment unit primarily extinguished the blaze and kept the flames from spreading, officials said.  Firefighters used stairways to get to the floor because the elevators stopped working when fire alarms sounded. It was fully under control in about 20 minutes. The high-rise level response brought more than three dozen firefighters to the scene, including Chief Darin White.

One resident was injured early Saturday after a fire broke out on the 10th floor of a senior care home near Interstate 980, a fire official said.  The injured woman was taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, according to Oakland Fire Department Acting Battalion Chief Tracy Paganelli.

Fire investigator Javon Smith said the cause was accidental. Units on the 10th floor and adjacent floors suffered water and smoke damage, and some of those residents received assistance from the Red Cross. The damage figure was not released.  The building is home to more than 200 residents, ranging in age from 62 to their 90s, according to on-site manager Alicia Zhao.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Clearfield, IA – Sprinkler system limits spread of nursing home fire;

Residents of a Taylor County nursing home were evacuated after fire broke out early Thursday morning. Firefighters from four area departments responded to the fire at the Clearview Homes at 202 Jefferson Street. Clearfield Assistant Fire Chief Clifford Briggs tells KMA News the fire was reported shortly before 6:15 a.m.

“We’re a rural fire department,” said Briggs. “We already had arrangements made with other surrounding departments to come. Lenox actually made it up here, and had already entered before we got here. At the time they made entry, we had smoke and sprinklers going. It was kind of smoky.”

Up to 40 residents were in the nursing home at the time of the fire. Briggs says the fire was located in a resident’s room inside the facility’s western portion. “All the residents had made it out at this time,” he said. “They made it out prior to us even making entry. They were all safe and across the street at a local funeral home. Once we did an overhaul of the room, we found an area that was on fire. We pulled the ceiling down out of the resident room, and extinguished all flames.”

Briggs credits the home’s sprinkler system for preventing the fire’s spread. Firefighters from Sharpsburg, Diagonal and Lenox assisted Clearfield’s department at the scene. Corning’s department was also on standby. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Briggs says the State Fire Marshal has been notified of the incident.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Fayetteville, AR – Balcony fire at senior apartment complex put out by sprinkler system

A balcony fire ignited at a Fayetteville apartment complex for seniors Tuesday, but it was quickly extinguished.  The fire at Wedington Place Senior Apartments, 3130 Telluride Drive, started just after 1 p.m., however, the building’s sprinkler system activated and put out the flames, according to Dale Riggins, administrative assistant for the Fayetteville Police Department.

No one at the complex was injured or had to be transported to a hospital. However, Central EMS arrived on scene to help bring people down from the second floor with wheelchairs, Riggins said. The top floor sustained smoke and water damage, and as of 2:30 p.m. fire marshals were still at the scene investigating the cause of the fire, Riggins said.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Wheeling, IL – Bedroom fire on 3rd floor of senior housing facility extinguished by sprinklers

Authorities say a sprinkler system helped avert disaster last week when fire broke out in a Wheeling senior housing facility.  Wheeling fire crews were called to the Addolorata Villa Senior Living Community, 557 McHenry Road, about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, in response to the fire.

The first firefighters to arrive found two fire sprinkler heads extinguishing a bedroom fire in a third-floor apartment of the four-story facility.  The resident of the unit was rescued by firefighters and admitted to a hospital for nonlife-threatening injuries, officials said. Firefighters and police evacuated several residents safely.

A Wheeling firefighter was admitted to Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview and kept overnight for observation of medical issues, according to the fire department.  The building where the fire started houses more than 100 residents and is one of four interconnected buildings at the facility, officials said. If not for the sprinkler system, it is likely the fire would have caused fatalities, Fire Chief Keith MacIsaac said in a news release. The cause of the fire is being investigated, but officials do not believe it was suspicious.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential, Residential High Rise

St. Louis, MO – Sprinkler system activates in fire at high rise for the elderly and disabled; No injuries reported

Tense times for residents Thursday morning at a Midtown St. Louis apartment high-rise after a fire temporarily shut down the elevators. The apartments are home to senior citizens and people with disabilities. All three elevators in the building were disabled after a cooking accident. The fire set off the building’s sprinkler system. “When there is a fire, the sprinkler goes off. The sprinkler kicks on and it shuts down the elevator – all elevators,” said Vince Turner.

Those sprinklers sent water into a lot of different areas, including the electrical components of the elevators. The St. Louis Fire Department said the trouble began Wednesday night after Turner, a resident on the 21st floor, burned his dinner. “I was frying some fish in the skillet, then it exploded-boom-big ball of fire and smoke,” he said. The high-rise Council Towers Senior Apartments is home to senior citizens and those with disabilities. After about 12 hours of nonstop work by repair crews, two of the three elevators were back up and running. Although many of the residents struggled to get up and down the stairs, no one was hurt. “I never had to walk this many flights in my life,” said Debora Hall.

Hall, 61, said she walked down 27 flights of stairs. “It was very painful; my whole right side. I have a disc in my neck and my lower back so my whole right side is very weak,” Hall said.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Peterborough, NH – Single sprinkler extinguishes nursing home blaze; No injuries reported

The Peterborough Fire Department said a fire at a nursing home Saturday is a good example of the value of having a working sprinkler system in every building.  Firefighters said they were called to Pheasant Wood Center just before 1 p.m. because the fire alarm was sounding.  Officials said water was runnning out from unde the door to the maintenance room on the firsit floor and smoke could be smelled on the first and second floors. Officials said a single sprinkler head had activated and extinguished the fire.  The fire was caused when an electric fan caught fire and ignited other nearby combustibles.

Thanks to the sprinkler, the fire was contained and none of the residents or the operation of the nursing home were impacted by the fire.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Covington, KY – Sprinkler system activates to tackle fire in mechanical room of senior living building

More than 160 seniors were displaced Thursday when the Golden Tower residential building caught fire.

The fire was contained to the mechanical room in the 11th Street building where something shorted out, reports indicate. The fire triggered the sprinkler system.

The residents of the building, which is operated by the Housing Authority of Covington, were placed in hotels and helped by the Red Cross.

It could be up to five or six days before they are able to return to their homes.