By Trent Spiner
The Concord Monitor
NORTHFIELD, N.H. — State officials, concerned about fire safety at the Arches Alzheimer’s Care Facility in Northfield, are forcing some elderly residents to move immediately.
During a surprise fire drill conducted last month, only one of 10 residents on the top floor was able to leave — and that was because she fell down the stairs, breaking her hip, officials said. When the drill was canceled seven minutes later so officials could care for the woman, two other residents were still in bed and the rest had not been relocated by the staff.
Northfield-Tilton Fire Chief Steve Carrier said the unannounced visit took place about 5:30 a.m. It was meant to see if residents could meaningfully take part in an evacuation.
“It was unfortunate,” he said of the broken hip. “We felt terrible about it because certainly we had something to do with the drill.”
It was the third failed evacuation drill in recent years for the facility, according to state records. During a drill last October, it took 13 minutes to evacuate, state records show. Two residents physically fought with staff members who were trying to help.
In August 2008, another unannounced drill at 6:15 a.m. was aborted after it went over the 13-minute limit. Six residents were still in bed.
Arches owner BettyAnn Salchli said none of her residents experience an increased risk compared with other facilities in the state. She denied the fire chief’s statements that he personally loaded a patient into an ambulance with a broken hip, saying everyone was fine after the most recent drill last month.
And she said 17 safety evacuation drills were successfully completed last year, but state officials were at the only two failures. “They are the ones that make up the rules, and that’s . . . what we’re abiding by,” she said.
Asked whether she believed there was a danger to residents at the facility, Salchli said, “Well, you could have a fire in a hospital, and you don’t know if people are going to have smoke inhalation. Anytime there is a fire, any senior citizen, or any person, is at risk.”
The Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter to residents and their families the day before Christmas, alerting them to the failed drill. The letter documents issues with the facility dating back to 2005, according to John Martin, manager of the Bureau of Licensing and Certification.
Because Arches is licensed as an assisted-living facility, not a nursing home, residents must be able to vacate the premises mostly under their own power. At licensed nursing homes, medical personnel can “defend in place” against fires by putting patients in safe areas and closing doors behind them, according to Martin. But Carrier said the type of construction at Arches would allow smoke and fire to spread quickly throughout.
Martin said seven of the least ambulatory residents must be moved to a different facility soon.
“The issue here is not about quality of care,” he said. “The quality of care has consistently been very good. The problem has been they are taking in people they are just not allowed to have.”
When Kathi Hutchinson of Canterbury, a Concord Monitor delivery driver for 20 years, received the state’s letter, she was angry. Her wheelchair-bound mother, Janet Hutchinson, 80, moved to Arches in March 2008.
The facility provided excellent care, but Hutchinson was worried her mother was one of the second-floor residents who could not get out when she read the letter.
“When I saw the letter, I couldn’t wait to get her out of there,” she said. “It was really awful to hear my mom has been in danger for 15 months.”
After meeting with state officials earlier this month, Hutchinson said Medicare approved the cost of moving her mother to the Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen.
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