The late Thursday blaze forced 150 residents and staff into the frigid night and sent 27 residents to the hospital — 17 of whom are still under the care of doctors, officials said.
Investigators
with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) are expected to
enter the smoldering rubble sometime Saturday, the first time since the
fire began that they will search inside.
The
five-alarm fire broke out in the personal care section of the Barclay
Friends community on the 700 block of North Franklin Street in West
Chester. Staff evacuated vulnerable residents on foot, in wheelchairs
and even in beds, wrapped in blankets.
Residents were triaged on a neighborhood street, then transported to a number of different shelters on ambulances and school buses.
Authorities
poured over residents lists to check that everyone is accounted for,
but at a 3 p.m. news conference Friday they would not answer that
question.
"Our first priority
is to track down and determine that we can account for everyone," ATF
Special-Agent-in-Charge Don Robinson said.
Still,
a high level source involved in the investigation told NBC10 that some
people are missing, but cautioned that it's unclear if they left
shelters with family or friends.
It
was around 10:45 p.m. Thursday when smoke and flames first appeared in
the personal care area of the facility. Employees rushed into residents'
rooms and began ushering them to safety.
People at the scene described a frightening rescue from the inferno with some neighbors rushing over to help.
"I'm
just envisioning the elderly people burning in their beds because it
was so massive... before any rescue came," neighbor Scott Baker said.
With
tears in her eyes, staffer Nellie Mingey said she was worried about
the residents that she had come to know over three years working at
Barclay Friends.
"It's sad," Mingey said. "This is their home. A lot of them don't have anywhere to go."
Parts
of the community continued to burn Friday afternoon preventing
investigators from searching the complex or determining how the fire
started, officials said.
The fire burned so intensely that one firefighter reported feeling his helmet begin to melt, officials said.
Fire Sweeps Through Pa Senior Living Home
Unhurt
residents were reunited with friends and family at nearby shelters,
including one at West Chester University. The American Red Cross of
Southeastern Pennsylvania had moved everyone from the West Chester
shelter to specialized health care facilities and closed the shelter by
late morning.
"They're cold,
they're scared, they're anxious, they wanted to get out of here, so
we're glad to have gotten them out," registered nurse Noreen Cibley
said.
Neighbors
rushed to the scene as well to help comfort evacuees. One woman who
lives within a mile of the scene said she called a first responder
friend as soon as she saw the flames, then rushed over with donations
from Wawa of coffee and water for the overwhelmed evacuees.
"Everyone seems OK, but they are tired," the neighbor said. "They look really, really exhausted. They've had a long night."
Barclay
Friends, a Kendal Affiliate, is a senior living community that provides
professional nursing staff 24 hours a day, meals and other services,
according to its website.
The nursing home section of Barclay Friends was put on a "provisional license"
last November by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) because
of the citations, and fined $9,750 in April, the state said.
Firefighters
warned people in the area to expect traffic troubles in the area of
Franklin Street and Goshen Road as roads in the area remained closed
Friday as more than two dozen ATF agents led the investigation into the
blaze.
A team of national ATF investigators plan to enter the burned out complex on Saturday with the hope of collecting evidence.
Flames Rip Through Chester County Senior Living Community Displacing 150 Residents and Staff, Hospitalizing 27
This is horrifying!
ReplyDelete