Nursing Home Fire Sends Brick Officer, 14 Patients to Hospital

A fire at the Laurelton Village nursing facility in Brick early Monday morning resulted in 14 patients being moved to nearby , authorities said. Also, one police officer was treated for smoke inhalation and later released.

A fire was reported at the 170-bed nursing facility around 5:23 a.m. Monday, according to Brick Police Capt. John Rein.

Brick Fire Marshal Kevin C. Batzel said investigators believe the fire started in a combined heating and air conditioning unit in an exterior wall of a patient's room. Staff members quickly removed patients from the room, and the building's sprinkler system kept the fire under control until firefighters arrived, Batzel said. Rein said the room was occupied by two patients at the time the fire started.

"If there wasn't a sprinkler system or an alarm system, we'd be having a much different talk this morning," said Batzel.

Batzel said there was enough manpower at the scene to remove all of the facility's patients, but in the end it was determined that such a step was not necessary. Patients were moved to common areas and hallways while firefighters knocked down the flames and cleared the building of smoke. The blaze was put out within 20 minutes of the arrival of firefighters, Rein said.

Of the 14 patients who were evacuated to the hospital, two were treated in the emergency room while the rest were held in a conference room. Brick Police Officer William Ruocco, one of the first officers to arrive after the initial call came in, was treated for smoke inhalation at Ocean Medical Center and released, Rein said. Batzel said no firefighters were injured.

Batzel said the facility is safe and is operating. Rein said four to six rooms surrounding the room where the fire started suffered water damage and approximately 24 rooms were affected by smoke from the fire. The remaining residents of rooms affected were moved to other areas of the nursing home that were not affected by the fire or smoke conditions. There were 120 total patients at the facility Monday.

All of Brick's fire companies responded to the scene, as well as Silverton fire company from Toms River, and the Point Pleasant Beach and Boro fire departments. The Mantoloking and Ramtown fire departments covered the Breton Woods and Herbertsville fire stations in Brick during the incident. Brick Police officers and the department's EMS squad also responded, alongside Point Pleasant First Aid, Alert Ambulance Service and Quality Medical Transport.

Brick Township Office of Emergency Management officials were on scene as well as members of the NJ EMS Task Force, which responds to large scale incidents and provides personnel and equipment from various resources as needed. For this incident, they provided an EMS transport bus which was on stand-by in the event that the entire building needed to be evacuated.