Blidworth care home staff praised for actions after fire

Well-trained staff correctly followed the emergency procedures in place, which avoided a more serious incident developing.

Hatzfeld Care Home, on Mansfield Road, provides specialist support for adults with complex needs including alcohol related brain disease, Asperger’s, schizophrenia or eating disorders to age related illness or dementia.

Nottinghamshire Fire & Recue Service received a call on Tuesday, February 21, of reports of a fire in a room at the care home.

Fire crews from Blidworth, Mansfield, Ashfield, Edwinstowe, Hucknall, Arnold and Highfields attended the incident.

There was a significant fire with a large amount of smoke coming from one of the rooms.

Staff had attempted to extinguish the fire using a fire extinguisher, but when the fire became too developed, staff followed their emergency procedures – calling 999 and evacuating residents to the nearby REAL Independent School, as per their contingency plans.

The staff came together as a team and along with compliant residents, were able to evacuate everyone to a place of safety without any injuries.

Hatzfeld carries out fire safety staff training every six months, as well as carrying out regular fire safety drills and this training and the confidence of the staff proved to be invaluable as they were assured in the actions needed to take during the incident.

Hatzfeld has also developed its own phone app, known as the Hatzfeld Care App2, which is accessible by all care staff.

This app provides information regarding care plans of residents and other pertinent information.

It proved to be invaluable on the day of the incident as the grab bag holding residents’ information was too hot to touch from the heat of the fire.

Staff also used Microsoft Teams, to maintain constant communication and ensure everyone was accounted for.

Karen Kirk, NFRS safety inspector, said: “We want to praise all the staff who acted quickly, professionally and in line with their well-established fire safety procedures.

“There were many vulnerable people involved and without the professionalism of the care home staff and how seriously fire safety was taken by them, we could have been facing a much more severe incident.”

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.