Fire evacuation a ‘shambles’
A frail woman in her 90s used her body weight to force open two retirement village doors and help a friend outside when the fire alarm sounded.
The handling of the fire alarm on Saturday night – as the All Blacks played France – has residents of Wellington retirement facility Village At The Park looking at starting a petition to address concerns over the Arvida Group-run site in Berhampore.
Representatives of the village have confirmed that the managers, who live on site from Monday to Friday, were in Wairarapa for the weekend. They got notification of the alarm as soon as it sounded and the staff on duty were alerted via a call from those managers.
Sam Treister, a community care worker with the aged, had talked to a ‘‘frail’’ woman in her 90s, who went to evacuate from her room but checked on a neighbour who had reduced mobility due to ulcerated legs. That neighbour begged her not to leave her.
So the elderly woman helped her neighbour. Two sets of heavy doors, usually left open, were shut and the woman had to use her own body weight to force them open.
Residents gathered outside, some in nighties and pyjamas, in the rain.
The village routinely held drills, which worked like ‘‘clockwork’’, but these were done in daytime with management on site.
One warden was heard muttering ‘‘this is shambolic, it’s chaotic’’ during Saturday’s evacuation, Treister said.
Residents, led by one with a legal backround, were looking at starting a petition aimed at stopping a similar situation, she explained.
Arvida Group chief executive Bill McDonald said it appeared a resident had left a pot on the stove unattended. While there was smoke, there were no flames.
‘‘In the independent living area, we run drills so people are capable of evacuating in an orderly [way],’’ he said.
The fire doors had shut when the alarm started and this was what was supposed to happen. ‘‘Everything that should work did work.’’
He confirmed there was no management on site during the weekend but there were staff on-site in the village’s resthome and dementia unit. Managers only lived on-site during the working week.
They had been notified on their phones as soon as the alarm sounded. Their subsequent call to staff were the first they knew of the fire, though would have likely soon found out via other means.
The independent living quarters, where the alarm went off, were not routinely staffed. He understood some staff from the dementia and resthome areas had gone to help.
There would be an informal review to check staff, management, and residents acted as they should but it appeared all had worked how it should, he said. Fire crews were on site within four minutes of the alarm sounding.
Management at Village At The Park would be discussing concerns with residents early this week.