Fire in NSW facility

More than 100 residents have been safely evacuated after a south-coast NSW aged care centre caught fire earlier today. NSW Police and Fire and Rescue NSW both attended the scene and now confirm that all is well. Residents are currently being relocated.

By Yasmin Noone

Around 130 older people have been safely evacuated from the grounds of a NSW south-coast aged care centre, after a four-year-old building caught fire earlier this afternoon.

The fire broke out in the ceiling space of an IRT aged care centre, Flametree Lodge, located in the Wollongong suburb of Woonona – just under two hours south of Sydney.

According to IRT chief executive, Nieves Murray, smoke and water from fire sprinklers filled the building but no resident was put in danger or hurt throughout the course of the fire or evacuation.

Both NSW Police and Fire and Rescue NSW were called to the scene just after 3.15pm. Fire and Rescue NSW arrived first and the police attended shortly after.

A spokesperson from NSW Police said evacuees were congregated in the facility’s car park.

He confirmed that no casualties or injuries were taken as a result of the fire or evacuation.

The cause of the fire is unknown but according to a media spokesperson for Fire and Rescue NSW, the source was an air conditioning unit in the roof of the care centre.

He said it took firefighters “a while to get in” to battle the specific source of the fire, “about an hour”, because it was located in the roof void. But, once the firefighters got through into the roof, it was evident that the fire had not spread further.

The spokesperson commented that the older people evacuated were “distressed’, as would be expected, and it was a “very scary time for people coming off the back of the Quakers Hill nursing home fire”.

But, he drew a sharp distinction between the two events – the Quakers Hill fire was the result of criminal activity and a rare tragedy, while this fire arose from a problem with the air conditioning and every one was safely evacuated. No comparison at all, he said, should be drawn.

“By all reports the aged care facility handled it very well,” the spokesperson said.

“Residential aged care facilities are relatively safe places with all the fire safety features in them.”

The spokesperson said 130 residents were evacuated in total – 102 from the Flametree Lodge aged care centre and it is believed 28 were from the nearby day respite.

Around one-ÂÂthird of the residents in the care centre were receiving dementia specific care.

Ms Murray said the sprinklers stopped the fire from spreading to other areas of the care centre, while the quick actions of staff ensured the evacuation was a success.

“We had a well coordinated response from our staff and it was very pleasing to see our fire drills and safety procedures worked as planned,” Ms Murray said.

“Other fire prevention systems, such as alarms and smoke doors, were also activated and of course, emergency services were outstanding in their response.”

At around 7pm, the Fire and Rescue spokesperson said that firefighters were still concerned about putting the power back on in Flametree Lodge so residents were being relocated.

Firefighters are “still there assisting and trying to help move people”, he said.

The Department of Health and Ageing are now responsible for the relocation and, at the time of publication, 46 older people were yet to be housed. But, a spokesperson for IRT said, they were on the job and the residents were well looked after.

Ms Murray said evacuated residents will need to be reÂÂhoused in other accommodation both onsite (deemed safe) and at IRT Care Centres in nearby suburbs.

“Some of those residents will only be in new accommodation overnight while power is restored and systems are checked

“Others may require longer ÂÂterm accommodation due to smoke and water damage.”

The matter is yet to be investigated

Tags: evacuated, fire, fire-and-rescure-nsw, flametree-lodge, irt, nsw-police, quakers-hill, woonona,

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