NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEw EI’~GLA~X~D ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
An occasional Chief, who fears the hazards involved clears his skirts
by refusing to okay any nursing home license in his town. By this means, he
may whitewash himself but the result is that the old folks from his city are
shunted off to the rest homes in some other town where the Chief looks at his
duty more conscientiously. These patients then become an unfair burden on
some other Chief.
In any cases, the Chief should give the proposed home a searching examination
before approving the issuance of a license. Could he get ladders, up to all
the windows? Has he men enough to rescue the proposed number of patients?
Could he use more than one or two lines with what water is available? Inside
the building, are the chimney and heater in first-class condition? Is. the heater
cut off from the rest of the building? Are the important doors self-closing?
Are the halls and stairways loaded with varnish? Can the stairs be cut off
economically? And, most important, there is that question of exits for bed
patients.
.
Let me give you some confidential data on the results of a recent inspection
by competent people, not of re~ homes, but of hospitals, where conditions
should be much better than in boarding homes, according to normal expectations.
Here is what the inspection of 153 hospitals turned up:
Only four out of each ten hospitals, had sprinklers.
Half of the hospitals had substandard protection of vertical openings.
Half of them had combustible finish with varnish or paint hazards.
Almost half of them lacked smoke barriers.
In one-third, the doors swing in, not out.
One-third had housekeeping hazards;
Two-thirds needed facilities for emergency evacuations.
One-half lacked satisfactory alarm systems.
;Fhis Was in hospitals, mind you! I, myself, inspected a town infirmary
in Massachusetts that exhibited lacks in all the categories I have mentioned, and
was told if the recommended improvements had to be made, the town would
never vote the money, but would close the infirmary. To show you wh~it such
conditions mean, let me quote from the N. F. P. A. fire records for such institutions.:
"County Home for the Aged, Har[isonville, Mo., October 27, 1950;
four dead. ~
~Fire that originated in a closet beneath the basement stairs, took the
lives of four elderly men before they could be rescued from their basement
sleeping quarters in the two-story brick, wood-joisted building. No
sprinklers or automatic detection equipment was provided, no night attendant
was on duty; all stair~rays were open; the building was a mile
from the nearest hydrant. Only the timely arrival of a bakery delivery.
man at 4:15 A.M. probably prevented the death list from claiming all
of the nineteen elderly occupants and six attendants asleep in the building.
Firemen could not enter the basement, but were able to complete evacuation
of the smoke-filled upper floors. They then prevented fire from extending
above the first story with four 1 ~-inch lines, equipped with fog
nozzles, and supplied from a 6,000 gallon cistern."
Now, what are the Fire Chief’s. opportunities to be helpful?
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