Staff members help prevent tragedy during Somerset assisted living facility fire

SOMERSET, Mass. (WLNE) — Staff members at a nursing facility in Somerset were lauded for their actions Thursday after a fire broke out overnight in the building.

The fire started in a community room on the second floor of Somerset Ridge Center, and Fire Chief Jamison Barros said the building had 127 residents in it, including 43 in the wing on the second floor where the fire took place.

No serious injuries reported.

“The staff did a fantastic job of isolating that room,” the chief said. “They actually used an extinguisher to put out the fire in that room and start to shelter in place the residents that they had, so they did a fantastic job.”

Barros said the main things that prevented a tragedy were the building’s sprinkler system and the quick actions of staff.

Among the staff was Faith, a traveling nurse who was in the building when the fire started.

She said that she grabbed a fire extinguisher and handed it to her aide after she heard another aide near the fire yelling for help.

She helped secure the residents, as well as calm them down, while the fire was being put out.

She also made sure to text her family just in case the fire got out of control.

“I just texted them that I loved them and that there’s a situation going on here and I didn’t know how it was going to end up, but I would contact them as soon as I could,” Faith said.

Barros said Faith was among those who made the biggest difference.

“Had they not done such a fantastic job, we could have had quite a few patients from smoke inhalation and other injuries,” he said.

Faith said that the important thing to her was being able to help the facility community.

“We just started securing the residents, they were our first priority,” she said. “Thankfully everyone’s safe and no one’s hurt and everyone’s taken care of.”

Barros said that some residents in rooms near the fire would need to move to rooms in a different hallway, but the center’s administrator later said in a statement that those residents will return to their rooms once cleaning was finished.

The fire’s cause was still under investigation.