A SUCCESS STORY NURSING HOME FIRE
FIRE PREVENTION
The swift extinguishment of a potentially tragic fire reinforces the importance of fire prevention, inspection, and educational activities.
What could have been a major tragedy turned out to be a minor inconvenience for the residents of a southwest suburban Chicago nursing home, thanks to the building’s required smoke detection and fire suppression systems.
At 07:03 hours on February 7, 1989, the Palos Fire Protection District (PFPD) was dispatched to the Americanna of Palos Heights Nursing Home for an activated trouble alarm. Simultaneously, Southwest Central Dispatch (SWCD) received a phone call from the nursing home reporting a fire on the third floor. SWCD provides dispatch service for the PFPD and several other fire and police agencies in the Southwest Cook County area.
The Palos Fire Protection District normally investigates all trouble alarms with the on-duty crews of an engine and an ambulance. With a subsequent phone report of a fire at the same location, the shift commander on duty immediately upgraded the response to a general alarm: two engines, a rescue
PFPD Engine 6303 arrived on the scene four minutes after receipt of the trouble alarm and reported “nothing showing” from the outside, but did report an audible water-flow alarm at the rear of the building.
The nursing home, which opened in May 1988, is a three-story, 150-bed facility that has a complete smoke detection and sprinkler system monitored by SWCD. Each patient’s room is equipped with a smoke detector that automatically closes the room’s door upon activation and sounds the fire alarm throughout the building. There were approximately 60 patients in the home at the time of the fire.
The three-man crew of Engine 6303 was met at the building’s designated fire department entrance by the home’s maintenance man, who stated that there was a fire on the third floor in room 319. The officer of Engine 6303 radioed SWCD, confirming a fire and requesting that a change-of-quarters engine from the Orland Fire Protection District stand by in the PFPD station for possible move-up to the fire scene.
As the engineer of Engine 6303 hooked into the fire department Siamese connection and established a water supply at a nearby hydrant, the crews of 6303, the second-in engine (Engine 6323), and the mutual-aid truck company (Truck 6404) proceeded to the third floor with hose packs and tools.
The attack crew connected to the stairwell standpipe. They encountered an extremely light smoke condition in the hallway. The door to room 319 was closed and the smoke detector indicator light above the door was activated. All other doors on the floor were shut by nursing home staff as per their standard operating procedures. The head nurse informed the attack crew that all patients were still in their rooms except those residing in the two rooms on either side of the fire room.
As members of the attack crew played out the hose in the hallway and prepared to enter the fire room, they could hear that the sprinkler system had been activated. Upon entering room 319, the firefighters encountered heavy black smoke from floor to ceiling, but no fire was visible. First-in firefighters quickly trashed the window for ventilation. The 1½-inch hoseline was used on fog stream pattern and directed out of the window to assist in ventilation, and was not needed to be used on the fire itself.
One of the three sprinkler heads in room 319 completely extinguished the fire on a bed that was burning prior to the fire department’s initial attack. The smoke in the room was vented and the situation was brought under control within five minutes.
Although smoke conditions in the hallway remained very light throughout the entire incident, the interior crews decided to evacuate all patients in the affected wing to the opposite side of the smoke doors. Three additional ambu_____ances were called to the scene to evaluate the eighteen patients that were in the wing at the time of the fire. There were no medical complaints due to the fire, and none of the patients needed to be transported to the hospital.
Nursing home staff members were commended by PFPD for handling the situation in a calm and efficient manner. An attempt was made to fight the fire by nursing home staff but was abandoned due to the volume of smoke in the fire room. The staff on duty is credited with limiting the amount of smoke by isolating the fire room and making no heroic attempts to fight a fire that was clearly beyond their capabilities.
The PFPD automatically goes into the Incident Command System on all fire scenes. The ICS definitely contributed to smooth fireground operations. The PFPD fire chief was initially unable to respond to the alarm and command was automatically taken over by the Palos Heights Fire Protection District fire chief. Several departments from the area were called to assist in water reclamation from the sprinkler system and salvage and overhaul operations.
A fire investigation conducted by the PFPD Fire Marshal’s Office, The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Palos Heights Police Department concluded that the fire was accidentally started by carelessly discarded smoking material. Damage was estimated at $15,000.
A subsequent investigation as to why only a trouble alarm was received by SWCD revealed a faulty computer board had annunciated the alarm incorrectly. The additional preplanned phone call from the nursing home served as a backup and allowed the appropriate fire department response to be dispatched.
It is obvious to all involved with this incident that the required detection and suppression systems contained the fire to its point of origin. All patients were happily returned to their rooms within two hours following the incident.
What in years past would have been a disastrous news story ended up being reported as a few paragraphs on page six of the local newspaper.
