Nursing Home/Senior Living, Residential

Oak Lawn, IL – Sprinkler system helps contain dryer fire at nursing home

Oak Lawn firefighters quickly struck a fire that started in a clothes dryer in the basement of a medical building. Firefighters responded to an activated fire alarm around 4:12 p.m. at Oak Lawn Respiratory and Rehabilitation Center, 9525 S. Mayfield Ave.

A second call was placed moments later by a caller reporting there was a fire in the basement. When firefighters arrived no flames were showing, but Oak Lawn police officers reported seeing a lot of smoke.  Patients were being evacuated out of the building by staff when first responders rolled up on to the scene.

“[The respiratory center] had an escape plan,” said OLFD Deputy Chief Scott Boman. “The staff did a nice job getting everyone out of the building.”

Patients were taken to a staging area across the street at Oak Lawn Community High School where they were assessed by paramedics and then moved into the high school to keep them out of the elements. A fire crew was sent into the building where they determined the origin of the fire to be inside a clothes dryer in the basement. The sprinkler system in the basement had activated.

No hose lines were laid, and firefighters used fire extinguishers to put out the fire inside the dryer unit. After that it was a matter of airing smoke out of the building, Boman said. “It was a small fire but a lot of smoke,” the deputy fire chief said. “Our crew went in and put the fire out, and got the personnel back into the building.”

There were no injuries, but an employee was transferred to Advocate Christ Medical Center for a non-fire related asthma attack. Oak Lawn Village Manager Larry Deetjen said the village health inspector went into the building to inspect all the rooms and ensure that the smoke had been cleared out of the building.

According to the facility’s website, Oak Lawn Respiratory and Rehabilitation provides care for approximately 70 respiratory patients, as well as short-term rehabilitative care for patients released from the hospital.

Boman said once the building was aired out, patients were able to return to their rooms. Burbank, Evergreen Park, Chicago Ridge and Bridgeview fire departments assisted OLFD in the fire.

Original story — Oak Lawn firefighters are working on a fire at 9525 Mayfield at this hour, responding to a reported basement fire at the Oak Lawn Respiratory and Rehabilitation center building. Streets in the area of 95th Street and Mayfield have been blocked.