Hero staffer saves lives after nursing home fire
NASHUA, N.H. — Working smoke alarms, automatic sprinklers and a humble housekeeper are credited with saving dozens of lives at an assisted-living facility in the middle of the night when a patient room went up in flames.
“The best of people came out and we’re lucky enough to be the beneficiaries,” said Luanne Rogers, president and CEO of The Courville Communities, whose Nashua facility caught fire.
The cause of the blaze, reported just before 2 a.m., remains under investigation by the Nashua Fire Marshal’s Office. It was contained to one second-floor room, where Nashua Deputy Fire Chief Karl Gerhardt said a staff member — a housekeeper — rushed into “heavy smoke conditions” and removed two occupants to safety. One resident was taken to an area hospital as a precaution to be treated for smoke inhalation. He was released later in the morning.
Gerhardt said the staffer wanted to remain anonymous.
“The staff member saved lives without a doubt,” Gerhardt said, noting that at the height of the evacuation, there were more than a dozen ambulances on scene. “We’re just glad no one was seriously hurt. Prevention does go a long way toward making these incidents less frequent and less severe. We don’t want any hiccups in an incident like this.”
Raymond Lechevet, 88, a short-term patient at Courville, was unfazed yesterday as he sat outside in the sunshine just hours after the incident.
“I slept through everything,” he said.
Crews planned to work through the Fourth of July holiday if necessary to repair smoke and water damage. Meanwhile, approximately 54 of Courville’s 90 residents and patients have been temporarily taken in by nearby sister facility Kindred Greenbriar Transitional Care and Rehabilitation Center. Beds, walkers and other equipment were delivered there yesterday by the truckload.
Kindred Greenbriar Executive Director Barbara Wilkins said there was space enough in one unit to house 20 of the Courville residents together. They began arriving on stretchers at 4:47 a.m. yesterday.
She said 20 of her employees offered to come in on their day off, and even the hero housekeeper dropped by to help get everyone settled.
“Thank goodness for people like him,” she said. “I really haven’t seen any unsettled or upset residents. The positive is, no one was hurt.”
Rogers said the majority of those who call Courville home are 85 and older.
“Some were saying, ‘ We can talk about this forever!’ ” Rogers said, smiling. “The staff did everything they were supposed to do. It’s one of the blessings of living in New Hampshire: If something happens, your peers step up. We had staff who heard about it and just came in and helped.”