Woman dies after nursing home fire

A GARDA was treated in hospital for smoke inhalation after he kicked down the door of a patient’s room at a nursing home in Co Clare where a fire alarm had been activated in the early hours of yesterday morning.

An elderly patient is believed to have died of natural causes while staff at the HSE-registered Lakes Nursing Home in Killaloe were moving residents from one part of the building to another. It is understood the 95-year-old, who had been gravely ill during the day, passed away about 20 minutes after the facility’s fire alarm was activated. The woman is believed to have died of natural causes and her death is not thought to be connected with the fire at the premises.

On arrival at the scene, a garda was forced to kick down the door of the room where the fire was reported. The garda removed a 21-year-old partially disabled man from the room and both men were later treated at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick for smoke inhalation. The garda was later discharged while the HSE has confirmed that the nursing home resident is in a “stable” condition in hospital.

Firefighters based at Killaloe and Scarriff quickly extinguished the fire while personnel checked other adjoining rooms. It is understood that the room where the elderly woman was sleeping was checked by fire crews and no traces of smoke were found. Thepatient was, however, moved along with others to another part of the building as a precaution. It is also understood that the woman had been accompanied by acarer at all times.

Six ambulances from Clare and Limerick along with a patient transport vehicle from Ennis were sent to the scene. The HSE sent all available emergency vehicles in case the residents needed to be moved to other facilities. But no resident needed to be evacuated from the building.

A Garda spokesman said: “We will have to await the results of the postmortem examination before deciding what course the investigation of this woman’s death will take.”

A spokesman for the Lakes Nursing Home said: “We would firstly like to extend our sympathies to the family of the woman who passed away.

“The facility’s automatic fire alarm activated instantaneously and the fire brigade responded very promptly. The nursing home’s own emergency plan was put into operation and patients in adjoining rooms were moved to another part of the building.

“Patients were not evacuated from the building and are still resident there.”

The spokesman also confirmed that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has been informed and that a report on the incident has been sent to it. The facility is also offering counselling services to the relatives of patients as well as staff members.