- Author
-
Bryan, J. L.
|
DiNenno, P. J.
- Title
- Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home on January 1, 1978. Final Report.
- Coporate
- Maryland Univ., College Park
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NBS GCR 79-159,
June 30, 1978,
67 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- GRANT-79014
- Keywords
-
chairs
|
doors
|
evacuation
|
fire departments
|
fire fighters
|
nursing homes
|
patients
|
room fires
|
smoke
|
upholstered furniture
|
nursing staff
- Abstract
- The fire incident at the Kensington Gardens Nursing Home on January 1, 1978 was detected by the nursing staff at approximately 9:56 a.m., at which time the fire consisted of preflashover state in patient room 250. The fire apparently originated in an upholstered chair from discarded smoking materials or matches by the room's occupant. The fire consumed the chair, spread to sheets on an adjacent bed, and the privacy curtains hanging between the beds. The fire was confined to the room of origin and did not achieve flashover. The two story building consisted of an original section of ordinary construction, erected in 1937, and a new addition of protected noncombustible construction which was six years old. The fire department was notified at 9:59 a.m. by telephone. Housekeeping and nursing personnel assigned to the second floor, west wing, detected the fire in patient room 250 and immediately closed the door to this fire room. Other patient room doors in the fire zone were then closed, and three patients were evacuated from the fire zone before the corridor became untenable from smoke migration. The housekeeping staff directed arriving fire department personnel up the exterior stairway to the fire zone. The fire department personnel removed four male patients from patient rooms within the fire zone. The seven patients in the fire zone were evacuated by the staff and the fire department in approximately ten minutes from the time of fire detection. The closing of the door to the fire involved room, and the closing of the patient room doors appeared to be critical adaptive actions in this fire incident.