NEIGHBORS HELP
Displaced seniors could rely on the kindness of strangers after a massive fire
WEST CHESTER » Once flames start shooting from the Barclay Friends Senior Living Community assisted living facility Thursday night, it did not take long for caring neighbors to descend on the burning structure and offer care and assistance to residents who had been routed from their homes.
After all, these were their neighbors in the residential section of the borough on North Franklin Street.
As first responders in many cases wheeled residents from the facility still in their beds, they were welcomed by neighbors who helped wrap them in blankets, and even offer a warm cup of coffee.
At one point more than 200 residents were shivering in the 40-degree temperatures just before midnight.
Emergency responders calmly asked caring bystanders for help lifting residents’ wheelchairs. Quietly and ef-
“Everyone saw how devastating the fire was and we all had the same reaction: that people needed help. The whole neighborhood was helping.” — Larry Kingsland
ficiently, residents were loaded onto school buses and ambulances.
Larry Kingsland, 62, said he and scores of people who live around the Barclay 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 of the Thursday night inferno. “The whole neighborhood was helping.”
Residents for the most part remained calm as they were ferried out of the burning structure.
No one cried or complained. Few watched the flames.
With their homes in cinders, residents were transported to area hospitals, fire houses, West Chester University and Pembroke Nursing Home.
Resident Pat Marsiani was carried by a fireman through heavy smoke from her second floor room. She knew the flames were close when she heard the windows breaking.
“I was praying that everyone was OK,” she said.
Resident Peter Comerford was wrapped like a mummy. Despite the situation, he smiled when asked if he was cold.
“I’m from upstate New York,” he said. “They say 60 percent of your heat goes out your head. “With that said, I’m covered up.”
Unsuccessful candidate for borough mayor Tom Ciccarone Jr. watched the flames devour the structure.
“I hope it’s OK,” he said. “I hope they get everybody out. It seems like they got the residents out quickly.”
Relatives of residents who showed at the home gave the names of their loved ones to emergency responders and only asked in return where their parent was headed.
While the fire still burned, discarded wheelchairs were scattered along the street and a pile of blankets littered the sidewalk. Residents sat silent as smoke filled the air and their home burned a couple of hundred yards away.
Friday morning the president and CEO of Kendal, the parent company of Barclay Friends, issued the following statement:
“We are so, so sad to report that last night there was a tragic fire at Barclay Friends, a Kendal Affiliate in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Despite a swift, effective, and compassionate response by first responders, along with Barclay Friends staff and so many volunteers, the physical loss is devastating and the emotional toll, even more so,” said Sean Kelly.
“In time, we’ll know more about what happened, what’s to be done going forward, and how we can all hold Barclay Friends and its people up through this devastation and into the future.”
The Barclay Friends Home has been a West Chester institution since the mid-1930s, when a Quaker-affiliated senior care organization purchased a mansion on North Church Street that had been known as the Joshua Hartshorne Estate, after its original owner. The boarding home for the elderly expanded over the years but was sold after the senior care facility moved to the present location in North Franklin Street in 1997.
“Our first priorities include caring for the residents and their families during this immediate transition. Starting at the triage centers, Barclay Friends staff and its neighbors began doing everything within their power to ensure levels of continuity in care and compassion during the evacuation, knowing the suffering and fear that part of such a catastrophe,” Kelly added.
“As the day and weekend goes on, residents from Barclay Friends now dispersed over many different communities in and around Chester County will rest, begin to heal, and commence with the longer range planning to support more permanent transitions as they may be needed. Kendal and Barclay Friends staff will do this work together with the residents and their families. Our teams, over time, will also be aided by the numbers of friends and colleagues from Pennsylvania and all over the United States who have reached out and want to help.
“Again, our hearts go out to the residents, their families, the staff and their families at Barclay Friends. All of our thoughts and prayers will continue to be vital, as well as will the continuance of good work and outpouring of support that emerged last night and has sustained us through the morning hours.
“As we know more we will be sure to deliver updates. In the meantime, we are heartbroken by what’s befallen Barclay Friends and uplifted by the caring and generosity that surrounds them and us.
West Chester University President Chris Fiorentino released the following statement Friday morning: “Interim Director of Public Safety Jon Brill, who is the emergency coordinator for WCU and the borough, was at the scene of the fire at 10:50 p.m. last night and worked with emergency responders from the borough and throughout the area. As the University is part of a collaborative emergency response network, approximately 40 seniors were brought to Ehinger Gym.
“At Ehinger, the Red Cross and those at Barclay have coordinated efforts to move approximately 40 seniors to area healthcare facilities where their needs can be met. All seniors have been moved as of now. Scheduled classes in Ehinger will commence at 12 p.m.
“Many thanks go to Interim Director of Public Safety Jon Brill who coordinated efforts with WCU Public Safety and borough emergency operation team members to help our neighbors when they needed us the most. It is important to know that all of our University officers responded without hesitation to the needs of our community and helped evacuate those seniors at Barclay who could not escape the fire on their own. Our team of officers also rose to the occasion by carrying and setting-up equipment for the Red Cross in Ehinger, and wheeled patients into Ehinger Gym and onto ambulances and buses. This was truly an outstanding job performed by WCU Public Safety. I know that you join me in extending our many thanks to this exceptional team of officers. All of us are extremely appreciative and quite proud of their collective efforts.”