COVID-19 patients evacuated after power outage at Dania Beach nursing home

Residents of a nursing home in Dania Beach — including 13 patients with COVID-19 — were evacuated Friday after a portion of the building lost power.

Broward Fire Rescue Chief Michael Kane said the assisted living facility at 150 Stirling Road lost power at 12:30 p.m. Patients in the facility were moved to other parts of the building that still had air conditioning, Kane said.

Thirteen residents with COVID-19 had been isolated from the 100 other residents. Because they could not be placed with the other residents, Kane said all were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital “in an abundance of caution.” None were in distress, he said.

“They’re simply just being moved to place them in an area where they can be treated and receive care,” Kane said.

The power at the facility was back on by mid-afternoon. The hospital said it received 16 patients in all.

The Agency for Health Care Administration shows that the facility’s power generator is in full compliance with the administration’s requirements and has no deficiency listed.

Outside the facility, foliage and trees were removed from the landscaping. A Florida Power and Light worker at the facility Friday told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that an overgrown tree caused the power outage.

Though the facility has a generator on site, fire rescue personnel said they brought another. It is unclear why the facility’s generator did not automatically turn on in the part of the building that lost power.

The facility’s administrator, a woman named Aneshka who declined to give her last name, said the residents taken to the hospital were those who needed additional assistance, some of them on oxygen. The administrator said the residents are on their way back to the facility.

The rule requiring generators at nursing homes was enacted after 12 people at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died of heat exposure after Hurricane Irma knocked out the facility’s air conditioning in 2017. Records show that one room’s temperature reached 100 degrees. One victim who was pronounced dead at a hospital had a body temperature of 108.3 degrees.

Four employees of the center have been charged with aggravated manslaughter among other charges. All four cases are still pending.

The state revoked Hollywood Hills’ license and then-Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order mandating that nursing facilities have plans in place to supply emergency power for four days in the event of a power outage.

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