The Huntingdon Valley Fire Company was dispatched at 7:40pm on Monday, December 23 to the Huntingdon Valley Skilled Nursing and Rehab Center (3430 Huntingdon Pike) for a fire alarm and water leaking from a broken pipe on the facility’s fourth floor.
According to their post, medics and officers from Bryn Athyn EMS worked with the Montgomery County Department of Health and PEMA (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) to coordinate the evacuation of 86 patients to other area facilities due to the extent of the damage.
Medic units from Montgomery and Bucks Counties provided transport until 7:30am today.
“We want to thank all involved for their assistance with this incident. We also want to thank Pastor Dave Carey and the Huntingdon Valley United Methodist Church for offering their facility for the patients if needed,” the company said in a post. “Thankfully it was not needed but we appreciate their kind offer.”
Update: The Bryn Athyn Fire Company provided the following details in a subsequent post:
Squad 11 arrived on location to find a pipe had burst in the ceiling space on the first floor and was causing massive flooding to the upper and lower levels of the facility, rendering the elevators out of service and displacing residents from their rooms. Despite the water being secured to the effected pipe, the damage was massive, creating an occupancy hazard.
A unified command post was established within the facility to include representatives from the facility, fire, EMS, emergency management, department of health, and police. Due to the nature of the flooding, risk of fire/electrical hazard, and the inability to ensure patients safety, the decision to initiate a full scale patient evacuation was established, shifting focus of the incident from primarily fire to EMS.
Knowing the scope of the evacuation and the time needed to relocate the number of residents, EMS officers of BAFC coordinated with Montgomery County Department of Public Safety officials to begin the evacuation with the least amount of strain on the County EMS system. A plan was formulated and executed, using a combination of Montgomery County 911 EMS agencies, private non-emergency transport agencies, and specialized medical buses and passenger/wheelchair vans.
In total 84, including numerous memory care, and 2 bariatric patients were safely transported to six sister facilities as far away as Montgomeryville and Norristown. The first patients left the facility at 11:45pm and the last was transported at 8:16 this morning.
Everyone involved in the incident did an amazing job which contributed to the overall mitigation of this incident.
The Bryn Athyn Fire Company thanked the following responding agencies for their assistance:
- Lower Moreland Township Commissioners, Joint Chief of Emergency Services, Mark Showmaker, Codes Department and Fire Marshall Bob Sholly
- Huntingdon Valley Fire Company
- Lower Moreland Township Police Department
- Montgomery County Department of Public Safety
- Montgomery County Department of Health
- Montgomery County Emergency Communications
- Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency
- Pennsylvania Healthcare Coalition
- Volunteer Emergency Medical Service Corps
- Warrington Community Ambulance
- Tri-Hampton Rescue Squad
- Central Bucks EMS
- Second Alarmer’s Association and Rescue Squad of Montgomery County
- Narberth EMS
- Haverford Police Department
- Tower Health
- SEPA SMART
- Romed Ambulance Service
- Safety First Ambulance Service
- Keystone Quality Transport
For all the latest news, follow us on Facebook or sign up for Glenside Local’s “Daily Buzz” newsletter here.
Photos: HVFC, BAFC