Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 17, 1993 TAG: 9304170236
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
DISASTER AT NURSING HOME AVERTED
When a fire broke out Friday at The Manor of Natural Bridge, everything went according to plan.Smoke alarms went off and fire doors automatically slammed shut, isolating the blaze in an empty wing. Sprinklers doused the flames enough to contain them to three rooms.
Members of the volunteer fire department - located 200 yards down U.S. 11 - were there within moments. Thanks partly to the knowledge they had gained from a planning visit just two weeks before, they were able to quickly extinguish the fire.
Inside the home, staffers and residents responded calmly and remembered their fire-drill training.
All 32 residents - including several in wheelchairs - made it outside within one minute, Nena Birnbach, the home's administrator, said. No one was injured.
For Birnbach, about the only mishap - beyond the inconvenience and expense of the fire damage - was that one television station misidentified her as "Nena Nirnbach."
"The residents kept their composure," Birnbach said. "They knew where to go and what to do. And so did the staff. I was really impressed with everybody."
The fire started about noon in the ceiling of a bathroom in one dormitory wing of the building. All the residents were in the lunchroom at the time. Fire officials said they were unsure of the cause of the blaze, although they said it might have had something to do with wiring or a light fixture.
Chief Joe Revard of the Natural Bridge Volunteer Fire Department said good planning by the home and the department helped make the difference - along with the automatic fire-protection system at the home.
"You can't underestimate the value of sprinklers," Revard said. "I've been in this business for 30 years."
National fire experts say there has never been a multiple-death fire in a building that is fully outfitted with sprinklers.
The lack of sprinklers in many homes for the aged and disabled became an issue in late 1990 after five fires claimed the lives of 18 residents at five different facilities - including four people at Shenandoah Homes in Roanoke County - over a period of just three months.
The next year, state Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, won passage of a law that required sprinklers at nursing homes.
State officials have been studying whether to do the same for adult homes, which typically shelter residents who are less physically disabled than those at nursing homes.
Walker said Friday that he is still pushing for sprinklers in all adult homes, but wants to do it in such a way that the expense won't put smaller adult homes out of business.