Father of nursing home fire victim calls for inquiry

THE father of a 21-year-old being treated in the intensive care unit at the Mid-West Regional Hospital, Limerick, following a fire at a Killaloe nursing home, has called for an inquiry into the fire and evacuation procedure.
The young man, who is paralysed from the waist down, was a resident of the Lakes Nursing Home and it is understood that the fire, which occurred in the early hours of Friday morning of last week, started in his room.  
The alarm was raised when smoke detectors went off at approximately 12.45am and fire brigade units from Killaloe and Scariff responded. Units were also deployed from Limerick and Newport but were stood down on route. The Killaloe unit of the fire brigade responded first and arrived on the scene at 12.53am.
The young man’s father told The Clare Champion that he believed his son could have been in the room for up to 20 minutes before being rescued. Following the fire, his son was in a critical condition in intensive care on Friday night but is now stable.
“He has a machine breathing for him at the moment. They told me on Friday that he would not be able to survive without the ventilator. He took a turn on Friday night at about 8pm. One of his lungs had collapsed. It’s very upsetting,” he said. He now wants an inquiry into the incident.
Tom Burke, fire officer in charge on the night, said the resident had been rescued by one of his crew. He was in the bathroom of the room at the time. 
It was accepted by the fire services that the young man could have been in the room for at least “a good 10 minutes” before they were able to remove him.
A 95-year-old woman who was also a resident passed away shortly after the fire broke out but a post-mortem confirmed that she died of natural causes. A garda was also treated for smoke inhalation and it is understood that no-one else was injured as a result of the fire.
The 57-bed nursing home facility had a total of 48 residents when the fire broke out.
A spokesperson for the Lakes Nursing Home said, “The nursing home is satisfied that the emergency plan operated immediately and effectively and that the nursing home fulfilled its duty of care to all residents completely. The manner of how the fire started is subject to a garda investigation,” he said.
“All the rooms have a smoke detector and these activated. When the smoke alarm went off, staff attempted to enter the room immediately but the smoke and flames were so severe they could not get in without endangering their own safety,” he said.
A Garda spokesperson said the matter is under investigation and they are awaiting the forensic analysis from the Garda Technical Bureau.