Bitter cold gripped Hartford in the early morning of Feb. 26, 2003, as Fire Chief Charles Teale responded to a fire at Greenwood Health Center.
“I can remember arriving on the scene and seeing a row of patients,” Teale said. “If they weren't shivering and their teeth weren't chattering, they were deceased already.”
Teale said a recent fire at an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, brought back memories of the deadly tragedy in Hartford. Sixteen people were killed as a result of the 2003 fire.
“They were in excess of 140 people in that convalescent home at that time and the situation could have been much, much, much worse, although 16 was certainly bad enough,” Teale told Connecticut Public.
During this month’s Fall River fire, at least 10 people have died and about 30 were injured, putting a spotlight on minimal regulations at assisted-living facilities. Teale said the fire he responded to more than two decades ago prompted similar calls for reform – not for the facilities, but for fire codes.
“The building was not sprinkled, nor did it have smoke detectors throughout it,” Teale said. “It had been inspected by the fire marshal's office very recently and it passed inspection, simply because according to code, it met all the requirements.”
A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found the Greenwood fire spread, in part, because federal regulations did not require smoke detectors in patient rooms at that time. It also found state and federal regulators had not required sprinklers because the facility was built before sprinkler laws took effect.
“It's hard to believe this is the case, but it was the case,” Teale said. “But nowadays, of course, those things are required thanks to the actions of our legislators.”
The Greenwood fire also prompted concerns about how often night shift staff performed fire drills.
Teale remembers hearing about the dedication of one particular nurse that day.
“She would do whatever she could to make sure that the patients could be transported safely,” he said. “You could see her hands through the smoke, working on the patients as they try to get the patients out of the building.”
“To me, that was truly heroic,” Teale said.
The former chief offers his condolences to people who lost a loved one in the Fall River fire and its aftermath, and offered prayers to them, as well as the first responders.
“The members of the department that responded to that fire should take full advantage of any assistance that is provided, so that they don't take that experience home with them, because it can happen,” Teale said. “And it can disrupt a household in ways you can't imagine.”
The scene at Greenwood Health Center, now under new management and renamed Parkville Care Center, stays with Teale more than 20 years later.
“I don't know if a day goes by where I don't think about it,” Teale said. “But more than anything else, I remember the work that the members of the Hartford Fire Department performed.”
Connecticut Public’s Cassandra Basler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
