Category Archives: Nursing Home/Senior Living

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Northbridge, MA – Fire in light fixture at nursing home extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries reported

Staff at Beaumont Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center said they knew they’d been successful in evacuating the building without too much trauma when the residents said they felt like the event was a party and not the result of a small fire. The fire Monday night, in a light fixture, was quickly extinguished by the facility’s sprinkler system, said Matthew Salmon, Beaumont’s owner. The fire damage was hardly noticeable, but the water that was pumped out of the sprinkler flooded the floor and flowed down to a lower level of the center, forcing 28 of the 150 residents to be evacuated.

Staff gathered up residents, collected their needed personal belongings and organized their medications and charts so they could be taken to nearby facilities in the Beaumont group or to St. Camillus Health Care, where they spent the night. “They said it was like a party,” a nursing supervisor told Mr. Salmon.

Mr. Salmon anticipated the residents would return by Tuesday evening. The evacuation went off exactly as it should, and it’s something care facilities practice with fire alarms and evacuations in mock situations.  “We have a plan in place,” Mr. Salmon said. “We’re part of Mass. MAP (the Massachusetts Long Term Care Mutual Aid Plan).”

The plan sets how an evacuation and relocation of patients in care facilities is to be carried out, Mr. Salmon said. So if another facility was evacuated, some of its residents could be moved to Beaumont, he explained. Fire doors closed during the incident, and some residents who sheltered in place slept through it, Mr. Salmon said.  The Fire Department was credited with quickly minimizing the damage being done by the sprinklers and for setting up a response of vehicles that could move residents who had to leave the building.

A task force of ambulances was called to the home, along with the Worcester Regional Transit Authority’s AmbuBus, a retrofitted 1996 bus equipped with medical supplies and the ability to carry 25 patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers. The bus has been deployed just twice since in was made ready for use in 2010, but it is used for training, WRTA spokesman Meaghan Lyver said.

On Tuesday, elevators at Beaumont were out of service and some alarms weren’t working, so staff members were monitoring those areas. Fans were circulating air and drying rugs in the affected area, and Mr. Salmon said once the health board gave an OK, folks could move back into their rooms.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Wilkes-Barre, PA – Sprinkler system helps save lives in nursing home fire; No injuries reported

Dozens of properties in downtown Wilkes-Barre lost power Friday morning, including a long-term care facility where a fire broke out. Fire crews responded to St. Luke’s Villa at 80 E. Northampton St. around 12:20 p.m. for a fire in an elevator shaft around the same time as other downtown properties lost power.  The approximately 100 residents of the mixed-used facility, primarily senior citizens, had been moved away from the fire scene to a different part of the building as the site is operating on emergency power through a generator.

As of 1:30 p.m., Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney said city officials, utility companies and managers of the non-profit facility were trying to determine if it was safe for the residents to remain. “Right now, we’re in the decision-making process,” Delaney said. “The number one issue is making sure the residents are safe.”

St. Luke’s Villa, which is run by the the Diocese of Scranton, is a 50-bed nursing home, a 45-room personal care facility and a 31-apartment retirement community. Delaney said the it’s unclear if St. Luke’s was the cause of the broader outage or if other power problems in the area led to St. Luke’s fire.

PPL Electric Utilities said 87 customers lost power and they hoped to have service restored by 3 p.m. Delaney said crews were trying to “isolate” St. Luke’s from the electrical grid so power could be restored to everyone else until the building’s issues were resolved. The chief said the fire was extinguished quickly, and the most damage was due to a third-floor sprinkler system causing water to seep down into the floors below.

John Howells, director of long term care facilities for the Diocese of Scranton, said he doubts residents will have to move from the building, but a final decision will be made when power is restored. “State agencies have been notified. At this point, there is no need to evacuate,” he said. “When the power comes back, we have to do a series of checks.”

Most of the sprinkler water pooled on a lobby floor and teams from Serve Pro have already cleaned up most of the mess, he said.

“Things got wet, but it wasn’t flooded,” Howells said.

Crews from the elevator company are at the site waiting for power to be restored, he said.

Howells said residents are doing fine and all have been cleared to return to their rooms.

He credited the staff for great work.

“Everything went the way it was supposed to have gone,” Howells said.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Mount Pleasant, WI – Fire in attic of assisted living facility controlled by sprinkler system

Fire investigators are looking into a fire Thursday that damaged an assisted-living facility. The emergency call went out at 3:30 p.m. at Racine Commons, 8500 Corporate Drive, just north of Highway 20, and escalated to a second alarm for equipment and personnel. South Shore Fire Battalion Chief John Radewan said as soon as firefighters got to the scene they saw smoke and flames coming from the northeast corner of the H-shaped housing complex, which is west of Stuart Road and east of 90th Street.

“I saw heavy fire,” Radewan said. Mount Pleasant police officers already on the scene helped bystanders get all the residents out of the building without injury.  Firefighters attacked the flames with streams from a ladder truck and with hoses from personnel on the ground.  “The fire came from the back of the building and extended into the peak of the building, getting into the attic itself,” Radewan said. “We opened all that up and knocked it down.”

The sprinkler system kept the fire from spreading and firefighters were able to put it out within 20 minutes without injuries to the firefighters, according to Radewan. South Shore Battalion Chief Jon Keiser, who also worked the fire scene, said the placement of the sprinkler system inside the attic prevented damage and the fire could have extended without the presence of sprinklers.

“The interior rooms were only damaged by water,” Keiser said. “The fire damage was limited to the exterior of the building and the two roof spaces. It’s a very clear picture of why you put sprinklers in attics. We would have been here for 12 hours if it would have run into the attic.”

A trash container inside a garbage area appeared to be damaged by the fire, but Radewan declined to comment Thursday on any potential cause or origin of the fire. The fire is under investigation at this time,” Radewan said. Fire investigators started taking pictures and conducting their investigation of the fire within an hour of the fire being out.  Caledonia firefighters assisted at the scene.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Bend, OR – Laundry fire at assisted living facility controlled by sprinkler system

A fire from the laundry room of the Mt. Bachelor Assisted Living and Memory Care facility in Bend on Friday morning caused 75 residents to be evacuated.  Bend Fire Department responded at 9:03 a.m., and found light smoke in the hallway coming from the laundry room.  Crews put out the fire and cleared the smoke, then allowed residents to return to their rooms.

All residents were evacuated prior to the fire department’s arrival, expect for several residents who are not able or strong enough to walk. Those residents sheltered in place on the upper floors of the facility.  The fire sprinkler in the laundry room controlled the spread of the fire, which was confined to the dryer unit, according to the fire department.  The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Roanoke, VA – Late night fire at assisted living facility contained by single sprinkler; No injuries reported

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue responded to a commercial fire alarm activation Wednesday morning.  Authorities say it happened around 2:05 a.m. on the 6900 block of Williamson Road, at North Roanoke Assisted Living.  Upon arrival, crews found light smoke and one fire sprinkler device that had activated.  Further investigation determined that a single laundry bag on an outside stoop area had ignited. The occupants of one building of the assisted living facility were temporarily moved to other buildings in the facility.  There were no injuries reported. The fire is still under investigation.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Gloverville, SC – Sprinkler system helps extinguish fire at senior living facility

It was a long morning for the people living at the Village at Horse Creek.

Captain Harold Cain at the Langley Fire Department responded to the call he said, “When we got there we had people upstairs and there was smoke coming from the room, dispatch let us know one of the residents said there was smoke coming from that room.”

The Langley Fire Department says one elderly man caused the fire around three-thirty this morning.

“He was smoking and he fell asleep and it caught the couch on fire,” said Cain.Aiken County Police and the Langley Fire Department were able to get more than 30 people out of their apartments, including the man who started the fire.

Sherill Mikell, a resident at the Village at Horse Creek was there to see it.”He brought him outside and sat him down on the sidewalk and i just thought that is a hero,” she said.

The residents were taken to clearwater baptist church because of water damage from the sprinkler system.

“They took them to the church this morning, they have a gym up there and the emergency management and the bus took them from there and they opened the church up for them to stay there,” said Cain.

Red Cross stepped in to help everyone, by supplying them with food and water.

“This morning red cross comes and they fed us sausage biscuits and then this afternoon for lunch we had subway,” said Mikell.

Most people were allowed back in their rooms around three o’clock this afternoon, but red cross made other hotel arrangements for at least four residents who could not move back in just yet because of water damage.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Norfolk, VA – Sprinker system puts out fire at nursing center before fire crews arrive

A small fire broke out at Sentara Nursing Center Saturday evening. 

The fire started in a laundry room area at the center, located at 249 S. Newtown Rd.It was put out by a sprinkler system before fire crews arrived on scene, said Joe Milligan, Norfolk Fire-Rescue battalion chief. No injuries were reported. 

When crews arrived they found smoke in hallways and the laundry room. Smoke was not detected in any of the residents’ rooms, Milligan said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Greenville, OH – Sprinkler system keeps flames from spreading in retirement home fire

Authorities say a sprinkler system helped prevent flames from reaching the living quarters during a garage fire at the Brethren Retirement Community’s Chestnut Village Monday night.

The fire departments from Greenville City, Greenville Township and New Madison responded to the structure fire 9:20 p.m. at 888 Chestnut Circle after neighbors saw flames coming from the attached one-car garage.

According to the Greenville Fire Department, the fire was contained to the garage and did not have a chance to damage the inside of the unit or the joining unit to the north.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. The contents of the garage including a vehicle were destroyed by flames and water. The homeowner was alerted to the fire by a neighbor. No injuries were reported.

Greenville Township Rescue and the Greenville Police Department also responded to the scene.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Bradenton, FL – Overnight fire at assisted living facility extinguished by sprinklers; No injuries reported

City of Bradenton Fire Department responded to a structure fire started by a dryer early Tuesday morning. Around 1:27 a.m., the fire department arrived to the scene of a multi-residential assisted living facility in the 1000 block of 7th Avenue E.  Heavy smoke was coming from the north wing and main hallways. Thankfully, a sprinkler head was controlling the dryer fire in the laundry room, according to firefighters.  By 1:37 a.m., the fire was extinguished.  Damage is estimated to be about $6,000 and no injuries were reported.  The Bradenton Fire Department is investigating the incident.

Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Nashua, NH – Middle of night nursing home fire contained by sprinkler system

A fire at the Courville Nursing Home early Sunday sent one person to the hospital and forced more than 50 patients to be relocated to another facility, authorities said. One person was taken to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center for evaluation and possible smoke inhalation, according to the fire department. Fire crews responded to 22 Hunt St. just before 2 a.m. and found a fire in one of the patient rooms on the second floor. Staff already had removed two patients from that room. The fire was contained by the activated sprinkler heads. Fire crews put out the remaining fire.

Second-floor patients were removed from the fire area and sheltered in a safe location until areas could be ventilated and water removal efforts completed, according to the fire department.  “Due to smoke and water damage to several wings of the facility, a coordinated effort of Nashua Fire Rescue, Courville Nursing Home and various ambulance providers, 50-plus patients were relocated to Greenbrier Nursing Home until repairs and cleanup in areas of the facility can be completed,” the fire department said.

The cause remains under investigation. “Sprinklers in this case quickly contained the fire until the arrival of the fire department,” authorities said.