A little planning now can prevent big problems -- and save big money -- later on

Residential buildings housing elderly, bedridden or demented individuals are always a major concern for fire-safety officials. Each year, far too many tragedies or potentially serious situations occur in these facilities across the country. Some incidents are pure accident, but the majority could be avoided with proper building maintenance and continual employee training, as well as emergency planning and a basic knowledge of building codes on the part of administrators. Often times, plain old-fashioned common sense is all that's needed to avoid injury to humans or damage to property.

Fires or other building emergencies frequently occur overnight or on weekends when there usually is no chief administrator on duty to make the needed decisions. Additionally, it's common for members of the floor staff to speak and understand little English, making it difficult for emergency service providers to react quickly. As a result, there's panic among staff and residents. The staff may respond inappropriately to the situation and the residents become terrified or disoriented, causing general confusion and bedlam.

Hot Wash And Dry Sprinklers

The laundry room is very often where emergencies begin. Here, the same scenarios unfold time and time again.

I've seen situations where clothes or excess lint in a dryer catch on fire or cause heavy smoke to fill the room, and pandemonium results. In one such incident, the laundry attendant panicked, ran down the corridor, up two flights of stairs, and opened a locked door to call for the head nurse. All of this created an unnecessary delay in calling emergency help to the scene. (She later admitted that she not only didn't know where the firm alarm was, but that she would have been afraid to use it because she hadn't been shown how). By the time the firefighters arrived, the flames from the dryer had become so intense that the tiles overhead had melted.

In another situation, an attendant had put mop heads soaked with cleaning solvents into a dryer and the load caught on fire. She ran for the supervisor who first pulled the alarm, then ran to the basement and attempted to put out the fire with an extinguisher. When we arrived at the building, we found the supervisor with her fifth extinguisher, still trying to put out the fire. In this incident, there was a 10-minute delay in the emergency service response because the alarm the supervisor had pulled was only to alert the residents. It was not connected to the fire department which eventually was alerted by someone calling 911 on the telephone.

On one 95-degree summer morning, 2:30 a.m. to be exact, firefighters were called to a 200-resident nursing home because smoke was coming from a battery-powered auxiliary fire alarm system. No fire alarm had sounded. No smoke detectors had gone off. And the nurse who had telephoned the fire dispatcher didn't understand English very well. In our inspection of the building, we noticed a hole in a corridor ceiling on the second floor. When I asked this nurse what was the reason for the hole, she threw up her hands and said, "don't know."

As it turned out, the sprinkler system was being repaired and had been shut off--and this was the Saturday of a three-day holiday weekend. The facility had been left without protection -- no alarm, no auxiliary, no sprinklers--which is both a major hazard and a state code violation. As a matter of fact, it soon became apparent that there hadn't been any protection for months.

When I discovered this, I ordered one firefighter to be on detail on each floor of the nursing home until the sprinkler system was operating once again. The fee to the nursing home for this protection was $3,500. Expensive, yes, but not nearly as expensive as an injury or loss of life or property.

All too often, the location of the shutoffs for sprinkler systems isn't known by the staff or is inaccessible. Considerable unnecessary water damage and panic on the part of residents can occur simply because the firefighters have to hunt for the shut-offs. Sometimes, they're in unmarked or locked rooms and only the administrator has the key. Night and weekend staffs usually don't have access to the administrator's office. As a result, firefighters have to use forced entry into the room where the shut-offs are located, causing additional property damage.

Auxiliary Generators

Very few facilities have auxiliary generators. Consequently, during power outages there's no electricity: no lights, no refrigeration, no life-support systems, no heat, no air conditioning, no elevators. There was one case in which a nursing home was without power for 22 hours and the temperature outside was three below zero. A situation such as this is dangerous and inexcusable. If a facility can't spend the money to have an auxiliary generator on site, then the telephone number of a supplier of emergency generators should be posted.

Smoke

Smoke is a serious situation for anyone, but it's particularly dangerous for those who are non-ambulatory or have difficulty breathing under normal conditions. As with a fire, staff members should call the fire department immediately when they smell or see smoke. Then they should begin evacuation procedures (which should be rehearsed with all employees of the facility on a regular basis) in a calm, orderly fashion, starting with the non-ambulatory patients.

The Poisonous Plumbing

There was a case in a residential building of a retirement community in which a maintenance worker tried to unclog a drain with bleach. When this effort failed, a plumber was called. Not knowing that bleach had been used, the plumber put sulfuric acid down the drain.

What started out as a simple clogged drain problem turned into an emergency. The combination of bleach and sulfuric acid created chlorine gas which permeated throughout the building. The fire department's hazardous materials unit had to be called in. Wearing special suits and breathing apparatus, the men quickly evacuated the building and then cleared the premises of the deadly gas.

Hazardous materials units usually do not respond for free. In a situation like the example given here, the facility would be charged $10,000 to $15,000. Employee education, communication and common sense not only cost a lot less, but can prevent disruption of people's lives, injury, property damage, insurance claims and lawsuits.

Care And Planning

The following checklist gives some of the procedures owners and operators should follow in order to maintain a safe environment for residents of their buildings.

* Install inexpensive battery-operated smoke detectors in stair wells, basements, storage rooms, maintenance rooms and other areas where there are no hard-wired smoke detectors. Clean and test these detectors every six months to be sure they're functioning properly.

* Clean and test hard-wired smoke detectors every six months. Replace any that are malfunctioning.

* Regularly check the bottoms of dryers as well as vents and stacks for dust and lint accumulation.

* Check sprinkler heads and clean them of dust or paint.

* Group in easily accessible locations on each floor the fire pull alarm, extinguisher, telephone, and emergency telephone numbers, as well as instructions for the operation of this equipment and emergency evacuation procedures written in the languages of the staff.

* Keep storage rooms orderly. Put clothes and other flammables in one area. Use proper procedures for storing such flammable items as propane gas tanks, paints and cleaning materials in another area of the building away from clothes and the like.

* Keep kitchen cooking equipment free of grease build-up, have a fire extinguisher close by, and instruct employees in its proper use.

* Conduct an inspection of all electrical wires. Have an electrician replace frayed wires, cover splice boxes, and correct overloaded outlets and circuits.

* Have the facility's alarm system inspected on a regular basis.

* Keep maintenance, generator, boiler and storage rooms and closets clean and orderly.

* Be alert for the odor of gas. At the first sign of any odor, call the gas company to conduct an immediate inspection and make the necessary repairs.

* Label all valves, boxes and doors to rooms containing sprinkler, water and gas shut-offs, and electrical panels. Instruct all administrators and shift supervisors on the location of these control rooms and the location of the keys.

* Install an emergency generator, or add to the emergency telephone list the name and telephone number of a local company supplying generators.

* Develop an emergency plan which includes the locations of and instructions for operating fire alarms and extinguishers, proper staff behavior and response techniques, and resident evacuation procedures.

* Conduct education classes for all employees on a regular basis on proper on-the-job safety practices and emergency procedures.

* Remind employees not to use elevators or allow residents to do so in an emergency.

* Lock or otherwise secure outside doors in such a manner that in an emergency they can be opened quickly.

Donald J. Cassidy is a fire chief with the city of Boston and president of Fire Safety Consultants, Natick, MA, a firm specializing in on-site fire safety evaluations and training. Phone: 508-655-9090.