Vic: Thirty-six aged care residents evacuated after fire

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2008
Vic: Thirty-six aged care residents evacuated after fire

MELBOURNE, Dec 27 AAP - Thirty-six elderly residents were evacuated from a Melbourne
nursing home temporarily after a mattress caught fire.

Firefighters were called to the four-storey Sumner House aged care facility in Fitzroy,
in the city's inner north, at 6.35pm (AEDT) on Saturday following a mattress fire in one
of the rooms.

Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) crews were alerted by fire alarms and arrived at 128
Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy in four minutes.

The blaze was extinguished in minutes but it took more than an hour to clear the smoke
from the building.

One staff member was taken to hospital suffering smoke inhalation.

Ambulance members checked each patient before allowing them to return to their rooms,
a statement from the MFB said.

The cause of the fire has been linked to a dementia patient.

AAP md/it

KEYWORD: FIRE

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