1971 — Jan 14, Fire, Westminster Terrace Presbyterian Nursing Home, Buechel, KY — 10

–10 NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1971,” Fire Journal, Vol. 66, No. 3, May 1972, p. 64.
–10 National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. 1983, p. 137.
–10 Sears. “Another Home For Aged Fire: Ten Killed.” NFPA Fire Journal, 65/3, May 1971, 5.
–10 US House. Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg. Washington: 4-25-1979, 313.
–10 US Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 459.

Narrative Information

Sears: “The headlines in the local newspaper read ‘Fireproof Home Blaze Kills 9, Hurts 51 Others.’ Many will ask how a modern, fire-safe building could have had such a tragic fire. That question was probably answered best by a fire fighter on the scene, who said, ‘A furnace is fireproof too, but things sure burn inside.’ On January 14, 1971, at the Westminster Terrace Presbyterian Home for Senior Citizens in Buechel, Kentucky, things burned inside.

“The Home was a modern, fire-resistive four-story re¬inforced-concrete-frame building with a full basement. The exterior walls were of eight-inch hollow concrete block faced on the outside with four inches of brick. The floors consisted of a minimum of five inches of re¬inforced concrete. The roof was also reinforced con¬crete, with a built-up composition covering. The build¬ing was approximately 260 feet long by 62 feet wide. There was a lobby with an information desk just in¬side the main entrance. Corridors ran to the east and west of the lobby. The building’s two elevators were at the north side of the lobby…

“Nursing home facilities were housed on the first floor of the west wing. The east wing of the first floor con¬tained a chapel, a library, a recreation room, the dining room, and the kitchen. The small apartment units on the top three floors were for ambulatory residents, who came and went as they pleased. Most of the apartments consisted of a combination living room-bedroom and a bath. The four apartments just off the lobbies of the top three floors consisted of bedroom, living room, bath, and kitchenette. No cooking was allowed, however, and all occupants ate in the first-floor dining room. The ex¬terior walls between the apartments and the balconies were metal and glass panels with a sliding door to the small balcony…

“The nursing home facilities and the kitchen were protected with a combination rate-of-rise and fixed- temperature heat detection system. The rubbish and laundry chutes throughout the building were protected with sprinklers and heat detectors. Manual pull stations connected to the internal evacuation alarm were located throughout the building. None of the automatic and manual alarm systems transmitted an alarm to the Fire Department.

“…there were three enclosed stair¬ways. Those at the east and west ends of the building discharged directly to the ground; the one in the mid¬dle opened into the lobby. Smokestop partitions with doors held open by electromagnetic door holders were located to the left and right of the lobby on each floor. On the first floor the smokestop partitions extended only to the suspended ceiling.

“When the fire occurred there were 94 residents in the building. In the early hours of January 14, 1971, two nurses were on duty in the nursing home area of the building. They were at the nurses’ station when one of them heard a crackling noise coming from the east wing. She investigated and, on seeing smoke coming from the chapel-library area, started closing doors to the patient rooms in the nursing home section. She did not call the Fire Department. Within seconds after she had started closing doors the automatic fire alarm operated, releasing all the corridor smokestop doors held open by electromagnetic door holders. Simultaneously the building’s internal evacuation alarm sounded. The first fire apparatus arrived at 2:26 am. At that time the entire first floor of the east wing except the kitchen was ablaze. Additional assistance from two nearby volunteer fire departments was automatically dispatched on a prearranged agreement with the Buechel Fire Department. Those men and apparatus were en route to the fire when a second alarm was sounded at 2:27 am. Fire fighters, police, and neighbors joined to rescue residents of the Home. Eighty-five residents were led through the fully enclosed stairways or rescued from their bal¬conies by fire fighters over aerial and ground ladders. The fire was extinguished and evacuation was com-pleted within 20 minutes. Yet nine residents died of smoke inhalation before they could be rescued, and a week later one other died from the effects of the fire ( the cause of death of the tenth victim was not re¬ported). In all, an estimated 150 fire fighters and 13 pieces of fire apparatus fought the fire and another 46 emergency vehicles were used to transport the injured to the hospital.

“The fire, of undetermined cause, is believed to have started in the area between the chapel and the library, which, with the dining area, contained a considerable amount of wood paneling and combustible furnishings. The chapel had a slanted dropped wood ceiling with wood supports. The fire apparently burned through that ceiling, allowing fire and smoke to enter the concealed space, which was continuous throughout the first floor. In some areas, including the library and recreation areas, the ceiling was plasterboard on metal nailing strips. The wood members that supported the sus¬pended ceiling in the adjacent dining area contributed to the spread of the fire and smoke. The large amount of combustible interior finish and furnishings con¬tributed to the volume of fire in the east wing. The entire east wing except the kitchen received heavy fire and smoke damage. The second floor, where seven resi¬dents died in their apartments, and the first-floor west wing (nursing home wing), where one died, received heavy smoke damage. The ninth victim died on the third floor directly above the fire area.

“Investigation after the fire revealed that smoke ap¬parently traveled to the rest of the building through the concealed veiling spaces, through the openings around utilities that pierced the concrete floor slabs, and, to a lesser extent, through the building’s ventilating system. Soot and smoke deposits were found where utilities en¬tered rooms and pierced floors. Ceiling spaces gave evidence of heavy smoke deposits. These were no utility shafts, commonly required by building codes (continuous fire-rated enclosures). The utility piping and conduit pierced the floor in many areas of the building and were enclosed from the floor slab to the suspended ceiling above by plywood on metal and wood studs. Oversize floor openings around the pipes and conduit allowed the smoke to travel vertically with little resistance…

“The smoke spread horizontally because the concealed ceiling space over the first-floor corridors and lobby was continuous and extended over the smokestop doors ( see the center photo below). Also, the utility piping and conduit enclosures were open to the concealed ceiling spaces in the first story and to concealed spaces above upper-floor corridors, apartment entrance halls, and bathrooms. Thus, once the fire had entered the ceiling space above the first floor in the east wing, there was nothing to stop smoke spread throughout the building….” (Sears, Albert B. Jr. “Another Home For Aged Fire: Ten Killed.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 65, No. 3, May 1971, pp. 5-7 and 17.)

U.S. Senate: “Buechel, KY. – January 14, 1971

“Westminster Terrace Presbyterian Home for Senior Citizens was a modern, four-story, fire-resistive building. It was made of 8-inch concrete block with a 4-inch brick veneer, and equipped with rate-of-¬rise and fixed-temperature heat detection devices and’ automatic smoke-stop partitions. Sprinklers were installed in laundry and rub¬bish areas; there was a manual alarm but no direct tie to the fire de¬partment. Two nurses were on duty at 2:23 p.m. when the fire began, and the fire department responded in less than 3 minutes. Some 13 fire trucks and 150 firefighters responded to the blaze, as did 46 emergency vehicles. In spite of these efforts 10 of the 91 residents perished. The cause of the fire is not known but experts have labeled the fire “suspicious”—indicating that arson is suspected. This fire demonstrates the folly, of constructing fireproof buildings and-filling them full of flammable furnishings and combustible interior finishes.” (U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 459-460.)

Sources

National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1971,” Fire Journal, Vol. 66, No. 3, May 1972, pp. 63-65.

National Fire Protection Association. The 1984 Fire Almanac. Quincy, MA: NFPA, 1983.

Sears, Albert B. Jr. “Another Home For Aged Fire: Ten Killed.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 65, No. 3, May 1971, pp. 5-7 and 17.

United States House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging. Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg. Washington: 4-25-1979. Accessed 3-4-2022 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=hyotAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true

United States Senate, Subcommittee of Long-Term Care of the Special Committee on Aging. Nursing Home Care in the United States: Failure in Public Policy (Supporting Paper No. 5: The Continuing Chronicle of Nursing Home Fires). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1975. Accessed 3-4-2022 at: https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/reports/rpt475.pdf