1973 — Dec 4, Fire, Caley Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, Wayne, PA — 15

–15 National Fire Sprinkler Association. F.Y.I. 1999, 6.
–15 PA Gen. Assembly. The Feasibility of Retrofitting High Rises, College Dorms…, 2001, p39.
–15 Sharry. “Another Pennsylvania Nursing Home Fire, Wayne, Pennsylvania.” Fire Journal, May 1974, 11.
–15 U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 463.
–10 NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1973,” Fire Journal. Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 70-71.

Narrative Information

Sharry, NFPA Fire Journal: “On December 4, 1973, a fire that is believed to have started in the closet in a patient’s room on the second floor quickly spread smoke and heat throughout the second floor of the Caley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. It claimed the lives of 15 patients. A higher death toll was averted by prompt Fire Department rescue and proper fire-fighting techniques. The Caley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center was licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare as a “Skilled Nursing Home,” with a capacity of 103 beds. This license certified that the home was eligible to re¬ceive funds under the Social Security Administration’s Medicaid and Medicare programs.

“The original 42-foot-by-110 foot building was a converted mansion that had been built in 1897. It was a three-story-and-attic structure of ordinary construc¬tion consisting of cut stone exterior walls and interior wood framing, and had been operated as a nursing home since 1951. In 1966 a two-story addition was constructed on the east end of the original building. The addition consisted of two wings, a 54-foot-by-106-foot wing that ran northeast at a 45° angle from the original building, and a 50-foot-by-67¬foot wing that ran southeast at a 45° angle. Communication between the new and old struc¬tures was by means of unprotected wall openings in the basement and on the first and second floors….

“The means of egress in the old building consisted of an open monumental stairway running from the first to the second floor and an exterior metal fire escape in the west end of the building. It was also possible to go into the new wings, where there were enclosed stair¬ways.

“The original building and the connecting wings were equipped with a local evacuation alarm, manual pull stations, and several heat detectors. In the origi¬nal building, one heat detector was located in the second story above the monumental stairs that con¬nected the first and second floors; one was above the open stairway that ran from the second to the third floor, and one was in the basement.

“At the time of the fire the home contained 96 pa¬tients, located as follows: 16 on the second floor, old section; 37 on the first floor, new section; and 43 on the second floor; new section. The daytime staff con¬sisted of 30 nurses and nurses’ aides.

“The Fire

“Some time prior to 8:57 am, one of the non-ambulatory patients in Room 225 (second floor, old section) told her roommate that she thought she saw fire in the closet. The roommate, an 82-year-old woman, checked the closet and saw clothing burning. This woman walked to the nurses’ station at the apex of the old section and the two new wings to report the fire to the nurse. The nurse accompanied the woman back to the room and found fire not only in the closet but ex¬tending across the ceiling of the room. The nurse shouted “Fire,” then removed one patient. Hearing her shout, a doctor standing at the nurses’ station pulled the manual fire alarm station at the nurses’ sta¬tion, which activated the building’s evacuation alarm.

“Upon hearing the call “Fire” and the fire alarm, two maintenance men ran to the area of the fire and re¬moved several patients from Rooms 225, 222, 223, and 221. Each man carried out several patients until the fire became so intense that it caused flashover in the second-floor lobby area.

“The Radnor Township Fire Department received the first call from a nurse at the nursing home at 8:57 am. The dispatcher immediately sounded the home-alerting system and fire siren to summon the volun¬teers. A second call from the maintenance supervisor at the nursing home was received about 8:59 am. At 9:00 am the first Fire Department unit, a brush truck, responded and reported seeing smoke from the fire as they left the fire station, which was about three blocks from the nursing home. The first fire unit arrived at the nursing home at 9:01 am and reported seeing heavy smoke and fire at the second-floor landing in the old section. The fire chief, responding from his job at the local high school, ordered a second alarm upon hearing the report of the first-arriving unit. At 9:03 am the first pumper company arrived on the scene and, under the direction of the fire chief, ad¬vanced two 1½ -inch lines up the open monumental stairway to the second floor, where they were used to prevent the fire from spreading to the new section. The remaining men were ordered to don self-con¬tained breathing apparatus and to aid in the evacua¬tion of patients. At 9:04 am the chief ordered a third alarm. At 9:05 am the second pumper and a ladder truck arrived. These fire fighters were also ordered into the building to assist in rescue attempts. At 9:07 am the ladder truck from the second alarm arrived, and its fire fighters were also assigned to rescue efforts. Passers-by and telephone company employees from a nearby office assisted by taking some patients, who had been brought to doors and windows by firemen and staff, to safe areas. At 9:10 am, as the first engine of the second alarm arrived, the fire vented through the roof in the vicinity of a roof vent above the mon¬umental stairway.

“At 9:18 am a special alarm was sounded for an elevating platform. Efforts to rescue occupants were proceeding well, with fire fighters continuing to bring patients to windows, doors, and porches, from which points civilians removed them to safe areas. School buses, vans, and ambulances were used to transport victims to hospitals and other nursing homes in the area, under the direction of a police officer and an assistant fire chief. Nurses from the nursing home and several doctors determined which patients were in need of hospital care and which could safely be moved to other nursing homes….

“After the fire had been extinguished, the bodies of two women patients were found in Rooms 222 and 225 in the old section. Seven others died en route to hospitals and nursing homes….Six others died later in hospitals….

“The fire was confined to the lobby area of the sec¬ond floor, the lobby of the third floor, and the roof structure and attic of the old building. Thirteen of the 15 fatalities, however, were occupants of the new wings, victims of smoke inhalation….

“Discussion.

“This nursing home was inspected by the Pennsyl¬vania Department of Labor and Industry on June 23, 1972, for conformance with the 1967 edition of the Life Safety Code, NFPA No. 101. The application of this edition of the Life Safety Code was prompted by the Social Security Administration’s adoption of it as part of its standards for skilled care facilities. Compliance with those standards is necessary if patients are to be eligible for Medicaid and Medicare funds. On July 12, 1973, a letter was sent to the home listing 13 violations and ordering compliance within six months. On July 20, 1973, the administrator of the home stated in writ¬ing her intention to appeal for waiver of some of the requirements. On September 4, 1973, another inspection of the home was conducted; but at the time of the fire, three months later, the results of the inspection had not been mailed to the Caley officials.

“It is clear that the home did not meet all require¬ments of the 1967 Life Safety Code. One of the de¬partures from the Code was the lack of smokestop doors in the wall separating the new and old sections of the building. Lack of those doors negated the use of the wall as a smoke partition, which was required by Sections 10-13 and 10-23 of the Code. This single departure from the Code appears to have been most critical in this fire. Had the doors been provided, the degree of smoke migration would have been signifi¬cantly reduced, and the possibility of fatalities would have been proportionally reduced.

“A second major departure from the Code was the lack of an automatic sprinkler system throughout the facility. The Code called for sprinkler protection of structures of protected noncombustible construction over one story high, and all structures of noncombus¬tible, ordinary, or wood-frame construction. A prop¬erly installed sprinkler system would have controlled the fire in its incipient stages, preventing a large loss of life.

“A third major departure from the Code was the lack of a one-hour enclosure around the monumental stairs extending from the lobby to the second floor….

“Codes do not enforce themselves. Until positive steps are taken, fires such as this will continue to occur.” (Sharry, John A. “Another Pennsylvania Nursing Home Fire, Wayne, Pennsylvania.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 11-14.)

PA Gen. Assembly: “Skilled nursing home licensed for 103 patients. The original building was of masonry and wood (ordinary) construction, and an addition, consisting of two new wings, was mostly non-combustible construction. All areas had three stories plus an attic. Except for the original building which had a combustible wainscot on walls, interior wall surfaces were non-combustible. All patient rooms had self-closing, solid-core wood doors. The original building had an open monumental stairway and an exterior metal fire escape. Enclosed stairways were provided at the far end of each wing of the addition. At the time of the fire, 96 patients and 30 staff were in the building…The building was equipped with a local evacuation alarm system, manual pull stations, and several heat detectors…

“A patient discovered the fire in the closet of a patient room in the original building. She reported it to the nurse. When the nurse confirmed she shouted, “Fire!” and began evacuating patients. Other staff hearing the shout activated the building’s fire alarm system and began to assist in the evacuation of patients. The fire was confined to the second and third floor areas near the monumental stairway and to the attic of the original building. Thirteen of the fifteen victims were in patient rooms in the new wings.

Contributing Factors
• Lack of an automatic sprinkler system
• Lack of smoke stop separation between the new and old sections of the building
• Lack of 1-hour enclosure for the monumental stairway.”

(PA Gen. Assembly. The Feasibility of Retrofitting High Rises, College Dorms…, 2001, 39.)

US Senate: “On July 12 an inspection by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry revealed 13 Violations of the Life Safety Code in the Caley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which was given 10 months to comply. The fire began at 8 57 a.m. in a clothes closet…15 people died. The fire department responded…em¬ployees were on duty including a physician who pulled the manual alarm to report the fire. The facility was also equipped with heat detectors. The building was a three-story-and-attic converted mansion of cut stone with wood-frame interior walls and was used as a nursing home since 1951. An addition was added in 1966, largely of noncom¬bustible material such as concrete floors and steel-deck roofs. The critical defect was the lack of sprinklers.” (U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 463.)

Sources

National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1973,” Fire Journal. Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 69-71 & 76.

National Fire Sprinkler Association, Inc. F.Y.I. – Fire Sprinkler Facts. Patterson, NY: NFSA, November 1999, 8 pages. Accessed at: http://www.firemarshals.org/data/File/docs/College%20Dorm/Administrators/F1%20-%20FIRE%20SPRINKLER%20FACTS.pdf

Pennsylvania General Assembly, Legislative Budget and Finance Committee. The Feasibility of Retrofitting High Rises, College Dorms, and Certain Other Buildings With Fire Sprinklers, Volume II (A Report in Response to Senate Resolution 132). Harrisburg, PA: PA General Assembly, 1-18-2001. Accessed at: http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:KBzYm2dK2qIJ:lbfc.legis.state.pa.us/reports/2001/224.PDF+Fire,+Boarding+Home,+Connellsville,+PA+April+1+1979&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Sharry, John A. “Another Pennsylvania Nursing Home Fire, Wayne, Pennsylvania.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 11-14.

United States Senate, Subcommittee on 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: Senate Report No. 94-00, August 1975, 147 pages. Accessed 12-28-2021 at: https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/reports/rpt475.pdf