Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Community rallies to help after Barclay burns
Almost 200 people displaced due to fire at senior living community
WEST CHESTER » Chris Feryo and his wife, Kate, were getting ready to begin their day inside their home outside West Chester Friday morning when they read the news: The Barclay Friends senior home had gone up in flames and almost 200 people had been displaced in the middle of the frigid night, their homes destroyed and their lives tragically uprooted.
Some, the Feryos learned, were being sheltered at West Chester University, not far from their home. So they bagged up sweaters, clothes, and whatever bathing supplies they could muster, and drove to the school’s Ehinger Gymnasium, where an American Red Cross operation had been set up. Chris Feryo dropped the supplies off and headed to work at Founds Funeral Home.
“We thought they might need some warm things,” Feryo said as he walked to his car in the brisk morning air, about 10 hours after the fire that consumed a portion of the senior facility on North Franklin Street had started, a five-
alarm blaze that made news as far away as Great Britain and Vietnam.
“It seems like the whole community is pulling together,” said Feryo, whose perception was verified as another area resident, attorney Erin Bruno, hopped in her car after donating items to the shelter. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like this.”
The immediate aftermath of the Barclay fire showed how open-hearted the West Chester community can be, and will continue to be as the residents and staff recover from the blaze, said West Chester Police Chief Scott Bohn, who spent the early morning hours at the scene on Friday, talking with neighbors and emergency workers who converged on the streets surrounding the 20-year-old senior home.
“It is a community crisis,
and it will take a community to resolve this,” Bohn said in brief remarks as he came back to his office at Borough Hall that morning. But the generosity and assistance that was shown ever since the flames lighted the sky over the town, “doesn’t surprise me,” he said.
“I know that the West Chester community is a very caring community,” said Nancy Santos Gainer, the communications director at WCU as she watched ambulances and volunteers come and go outside the gymnasium on South Church Street. “When there is a call for help, our community comes together to assist. Like a family.”
According to accounts, dozens of neighbors rushed to the scene of the massive late-night fire that injured at least 27 people at the senior living community, wrapping the elderly in blankets and carrying them to ambulances and buses in makeshift gurneys.
Larry Kingsland said Friday
he and scores of people who live around the Barclay Friends Senior Living Community ferried elderly residents to medics as firefighters rescued them from the blaze.
“Everyone saw how devastating the fire was and we all had the same reaction: that people needed help,” he said. “The whole neighborhood was helping.”
On Saturday morning, the scene was considerably quieter than the gaggle of emergency crews and media outlets present on Friday. A lone fire pumper from Modern Fire Company sat parked on North Franklin while a ladder truck from Kennett Fire Company stood outside the remnants of the south wing of the facility, spraying water on whatever embers were still smoldering. Chester County Sheriff deputies stood guard outside the entrance while a mobile unit of the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms service could be seen parked inside. Authorities have not released a cause of the fire, which may have been precipitated by an explosion around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.
“There are still some hot spots that the fire departments are working on, so we cannot get in until the structures are sound and safe,” said Charlene Hennessey, an ATF spokeswoman on Saturday. She estimated that it would be later Saturday or Sunday until the investigators could begin their work sifting through the ashes and rubble.
Some 160 residents, some with fading memories and physical difficulties, were rescued from the buildings during the evacuation, but officials as of Friday afternoon were saying that some could not be accounted for and were missing. Most, however, were taken to other area senior facilities, including Kendal Crosslands, the Quaker-affiliated community that is parent to Barclay Friends.
Hennessey confirmed that there remain some residents officially unaccounted for.
“We are working hard to identify those who are missing. Relatives with information on displaced residents can contact 610-436-1352 to ensure that emergency personnel have current and upto-date information,” police said
A spokeswoman for the Barclay issued a statement about the facility’s efforts. “Right now, we are focused on our residents, their families and our staff, as their safety and well-being remains our top priority,” said Linda Sterthous, Barclay executive director. “We will continue to support local authorities as they investigate.”
Along Franklin Street, neighbors continued to remark on the tragedy.
“People lost everything,” said Dr. George Trajtenberg, a semi-retired physician at the nearby Chester County Hospital, where some of the injured were taken, as he walked his dog Bandit past the Barclay Saturday morning. He had heard the sirens and sounds of helicopters from his home a few blocks away but wasn’t aware of the nature of the catastrophe until he got a call from his daughter-in-law in Hanoi, Vietnam, who saw live photos of the blaze on the internet.
“How do you recover from that?” he wondered.
Stephen Dempsey, who was packing up the family car with his wife, Jennifer Dempsey, and their children outside their home, said the sight of his neighbors rallying to assist was remarkable.
“There wasn’t a face
from the street that wasn’t outside helping,” he said. Some of the neighbors had rushed into the buildings to help residents there get out while the fire was growing, he said. “They went in and pulled people out.”
“They were real heroes,” said Jennifer Dempsey.
Coincidentally, the last major fire that endangered the lives and homes of dozens of borough residents occurred just a few blocks away from the Barclay, at the former Seven Oaks Apartment complex on East Marshall Street. In August 1992, a fire started on the third floor of one of the buildings and quickly engulfed it, leaving many homeless.
Not far away from the Barclay, another Quakeraffiliated senior home was anticipating helping former residents there finding new homes. Charles “Ebbie” Alfree III said The Hickman on North Walnut Street had been receiving inquires about assisting families.
“Whenever there is a tragedy in a community, especially in a place like West Chester, where people are connected to one another, people want to make sure others are safe. People really do think about those who are suffering. Helping in all ways possible is a trait in our community. It’s one of the great things about West Chester.”
The leadership at Barclay Friends are asking for the following items: • Toiletries; • Reading glasses; • New undergarments, pajamas, nightgowns, bathrobes, slippers, socks, sweat pants and zip up sweat shirts; • Adult diapers/Depends; • New pillows, blankets, wash cloths and towels; • Walkers. These items can be dropped off at Good Will Fire Station (552 E Union Street) from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. today. Volunteers are welcome to come during that time to receive and organize donations.
If you are a family member or friend of a Barclay Friends resident, you can go to Good Will on Monday, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to pick up items needed.