Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Emergency preparedness auditing requires a hands on approach, literally, including physically testing every electrical outlet and sprinkler.
When a fire swept through a nursing home during the night last November causing the deaths of three residents and the spouse of one resident, it was later discovered that the water to the sprinkler system was turned off. The sprinkler’s warning system was also falsely indicating that the water was turned on.
It was nearly 11 p.m. when the five-alarm fire started in the personal-care section of the large seven-wing nursing home and destroyed that section of the facility. There were 41 residents living in that section. The other six sections housing 100 residents were not as severely damaged. However, none of the residents evacuating the home reported seeing any indications that any of the sprinklers were functioning.
Smoke inhalation was determined to be the cause of death for the four people who died.
An engineer with the firm hired by the facility to investigate the fire, told the victims’ lawyers and investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) about the sprinkler system failure. He also told the group that the control wheel for the sprinkler was observed to be in the “off” position after the fire. The valve used to turn the water on and off was in a locked mechanical room. ATF investigators reported that they were the first to unlock the mechanical door and were the ones who found the wheel in the “off” position.
The mechanical room was built out of cinder blocks and situated in a place where the fire did not reach. Since it was not unlocked until after the fire was out, that eliminated the possibility that the firemen turned it off to increase their hose pressure or maybe prevent the sprinklers from drenching the rubble.
Ironically, a newspaper had recently reported that this sprinkler system had some design flaws; and, it is possible those flaws might have been a factor in preventing the system from effectively functioning and slowing the blaze. There were more than 500 sprinklers in place for that section of the facility.
