Jack Martin Blvd. fire in Brick displaces 135 seniors BRICK - About 135 seniors were evacuated from a nursing home before sunrise Monday when a small fire broke out in a bedroom, fire officials said.
Several people were taken to the hospital with minor smoke-related injuries and officials expected center residents to be allowed back in by the afternoon. The fire, reported at about 5:30 a.m., started in room 227 at the Laurelton Village Care Center, at 475 Jack Martin Blvd, Brick Township Fire Department Fire Marshal and Bureau Chief Kevin C. Batzel said. It started in a combined electrical heating and air-conditioning unit in a wall of the room, he said. With the exception of the minor smoke inhalation injuries, there were no injuries reported, he said. The fire spurred a massive emergency response from area departments. At least a dozen fire trucks and twice as many ambulances, from Point Pleasant, Brick and Silverton, funneled into the one-story, brick facility in the morning darkness and set up flood lights and lined stretchers outside. A line of ambulances also waited down the street, at the Professional Arts Center, to transport residents to Ocean Medical Center temporarily, Batzel said. The large-scale response was precautionary, he said. Before fire and first aid personnel left the scene, Batzel said many residents who had not yet been evacuated from the building would be able to stay. As the parking lot slowly cleared out, inspectors remained to check the building's fire system, which, Batzel said, spared a disaster. Had the sprinkler system and fire-rated doors of the center not been there or had not properly served their function, the flames could have spread to at least three or four rooms before the department arrived, he said. "It's not really as bad as it seems here, and that's good," Batzel said. "This could've been a disaster." He added: "This whole place would be evacuated and shut down for months - months - if not for that sprinkler system." Dustin Racioppi: 732-643-4028; [email protected] John Drucker, CET Fire Protection Subcode Official Fire/Building/Electrical Inspector Fire Marshals Office Borough of Red Bank, NJ _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
