A nurse has told an inquiry into a blaze at a Lanarkshire care home how she had questioned its fire safety policy.
Alison Cummings, a staff nurse employed at Rosepark Care Home in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire at the time of the fire in 2004, said she was told if the alarm system activated staff had to check the home first before dialling 999.
When she raised concerns about this procedure, she told lawyers that the response was "it costs money for the fire brigade to come out, you get charged for a false alarm".
14 elderly residents died following the blaze at Rosepark home in 2004. The inquiry in Motherwell on Friday heard that the nursing home did not have an alarm system that automatically alerted the fire service. There was only four staff on duty that night, leaving many of the most vulnerable residents unable to get out of bed.
Staff nurse Alison Cummings said no elderly resident could have been left alone to get out on their own. Everyone would have required the assistance of members of staff.
The inquiry also heard that an evacuation of all the residents would have taken a couple of hours. When questioned by Paul Wade, a lawyer representing Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, the experienced nurse agreed that a mass evacuation of the building would not have been adopted.
She explained the envisaged approach would have been to try and contain the fire and remove as many people as possible from that area but this was dependent on the blaze not spreading. Miss Cummings agreed that this would have been a problem if the doors to residents’ rooms had been left open.
The inquiry previously heard how some residents didn’t like to have their doors closed.
Miss Cummings said their wishes were respected but that this situation at Rosepark was "unique" in her experience. In other homes where she previously worked, the doors were always closed while residents slept.
Last updated: 20 November 2009, 20:41
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