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Taylorsville • At least eighty senior patients at a memory care and rehabilitation facility were displaced Monday after a fire broke out and caused about $200,000 in damage.
All patients were cared for and transported by bus and housed at various care facilities around the Salt Lake Valley, said Ryan Eggelston, administrator for Legacy Village.
As medical assistant Hannelore Horten left the care facility after a long day, she had no idea she wasn't going to be leaving any time soon.
"I just got in my car and saw there was fire!" Horten said, adding that she didn't smell anything before leaving the building and no fire alarms went off.
She saw small flames dancing above the rain gutter at Legacy Village of Taylorsville and went back into the building to call 911. After making the call, she came out and saw the flames had flared up onto the roof with billowing smoke. Horten went back inside to help evacuate patients, calling the process "organized" and calm.
Firefighters responded to thetransitional rehab and memory care facility at 5472 S. 3200 West about 6 p.m. to find smoke and flames pouring out of the roof, said Cliff Burningham, spokesman for Unified Fire Authority.
"We had active flames coming from the roof above the dining hall. We got a quick knock down on that," he said, adding that it took firefighters about 30 minutes to beat back flames. Crews then cut through the roof with chain saws to track down hot spots. By 9:30 p.m. the fire was out, Burningham said.
Outside the facility, the patients sat in wheelchairs, some with oxygen tanks, and watched the firefighters tackle the flames.
The care facility has two separate wings of the building. Some of the patients were at the facility for rehabilitation; others were patients with a memory disorder, such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Julie Jones Hansen, of South Jordan, drove as fast as she could on a flat tire to check on her 78-year-old mother who is a patient at the 80-bed facility.
Hansen saw an article online, read the word "fire," recognized the address and jumped in her car.
"I just took off," she said.
Hansen could tell something was wrong with the car, but she was in such a hurry to get to her mom that she didn't want to stop to check the tire.
When Hansen arrived she said her mother, who is a patient in memory care, "was just frightened."
Normally, her mom would be in bed by then, instead, she was outside watching the firefighters. Even though her mom didn't really know what was happening, the disruption to her scheduled routine would take a toll, Hansen said.
"It will impact them for days," she said of the patients, explaining that the incident would leave them anxious.
"It is brutal to see them out here," Hansen said. "They are just very sweet people in a mind that is in torture."
The fire was contained to the rehabilitation wing, where it had started somewhere in the roof, Burningham said.
The cause of the fire is unknown, but under investigation. The bulk of the $200,000 in damage was due to a lot of smoke and water damage because the heat of the flames melted a Polyethylene plastic sprinkler pipe above the ceiling, Burningham said.
"There were two inches of standing water in the lobby on the floor," he said.
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