- Author
- Bryan, J. L. | Milke, J. A.
- Title
- Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the Thomas B. Finan Center on September 9, 1979.
- Coporate
- Maryland Univ., College Park
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NBS GCR 80-267, December 31, 1979, 35 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- GRANT-79014
- Keywords
- intermediate care facilities | mattresses | sprinkler systems | first aid
- Abstract
- This fire incident at the Thomas B. Finan Center on September 9, 1979 was detected by two housekeepers and a directed care aide who were investigating the ambiguous perceptual cue of an abnormal odor. At aproximately 1255 hours they observed the mattress, with the resident on the mattress flaming in the seclusion room of cottage 4. The direct care aide went to initiate the alarm and the facility fire emergency procedures. One housekeeper took a blanket, entered the seclusion room and smothered the flames on the mattress and the resident. The other housekeeper gathered the remaining nineteen residents of cottage 4 and evacuated them to the exterior of the building. With the next extinguishment of the flames, the housekeeper and the direct care aide togther moved the smoldering mattress into the pod area, adjacent to the seclusion room, and administered first aid to the resident. The City of Cumberland Fire Department responded, confirmed extinguishment and performed salvage operations. The fire department administered medical aid to the resident who had burns over 34 percent of the body and transported to the resident hospital. The resident was the only person injured in this fire incident and the smoke damage, to the one year old, unprotected, noncombustible constructed fully sprinklered building was limited to the seclusion room in the cottage 4 area. There was not enough heat generated to activate the sprinkler head in the seclusion room.