Anyone concerned about family members at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home can call 1800 227 228 for information.
I was horrified to wake up this morning to the middle of a radio news bulletin about a fire at Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney. From latest bulletins it seems a fire alarm sounded at about 5am and despite fast firefighting response (6 minutes according to the radio) the fire had become massive. As of the 8:30am bulletins police are advising that 9 people have died and that 20 more people are being treated for burns injuries. The reports are still not very coherent but the firefighters do seem to be reporting that some residents were killed or hurt partly because they were not able to self-evacuate.
I’m so sorry for everyone involved, especially residents who were killed or injured, and their family members and loved ones. How utterly horrible.
Update 6:30pm: news reports this afternoon are of 3 deaths and a number of people critically ill. I am not sure whether earlier reports were higher or whether I simply misheard. Sadly, reports are also that the fire is being treated as suspicious.
Categories: crisis
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A fire at that time of night is absolutely the worst for staff-to-resident ratios; simply not enough staff on duty to evacuate everybody who needs assistance. No matter how many people they were able to save, they’ll be castigating themselves for not being able to save them all.
How truly terrible for everyone involved.
How awful.
Update 6:30pm: news reports this afternoon are of 3 deaths and a number of people critically ill. I am not sure whether earlier reports were higher or whether I simply misheard. Sadly, reports are also that the fire is being treated as suspicious.
Mary, I thought I heard higher numbers earlier in the day too, although it may have been of the “up to 9″ variety because I remember something about some residents missing and unaccounted for – so perhaps they were found alive after all?
On the news this morning, a man has been arrested for arson and murder with respect to the nursing home fire and deaths. He is allegedly a registered nurse.
I’ve got all sorts of unfounded speculations going on in my head now about the possibilities of that combination. I suspect we’re going to learn a lot more about what this man has been up to over the years.
Specifically, he’s an employee of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home. One of Nine’s journalists, Jessica Rich, reports that he spoke to the media yesterday at the scene before his involvement was suspected.
From what I’ve read over the last few hours, a fairly recent addition to the employee roster, too.
His rapid arrest strikes me as the consequence of a guilt-ridden confession rather than rapid detection, which (speculation alert) leads me to hypothesise someone who wanted to be the lauded rescuer of a crisis he’d created, rather than a pure firebug (if he’d been a classic firebug he might have had a better idea of how rapidly the fires might spread).
With continuing deaths of residents in hospital, the deaths are now not far off that early report of nine 😦 😦
It also reinforces fears a lot of elderly people have about moving to a home. It seems just when public confidence in nursing home rises, another awful incident demolishes it all. My grandma is already convinced that all nursing homes are evil. This will just contribute to her anxiety when she has to move into one.