Small fire at Naperville nursing home
About 22 Alzheimer's patients were relocated to another wing of a Naperville nursing home as firefighters extinguished a small electrical fire Thursday afternoon.
No one was injured in the blaze that was first reported just after 2:45 p.m. at Community Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at 1136 N. Mill St. The patients from the affected wing were taken to another part of the building and never had to go outside where temperatures were well below freezing, facility officials said.
Naperville Battalion Chief Mike Vessling said two paramedics who were called to the facility to transport a sick patient to Edward Hospital discovered the fire in an adjoining unoccupied room. Vessling said the paramedics reported the fire started in the room's heating and air conditioning unit.
The center's administrator, Steve Jeremias, said repair specialists were called to the facility to check on all the heating units in the patients' rooms, which amounted to about 25 units. He said he thought the work could be completed by the end of the day.
Firefighters were on scene for about an hour. Patients were allowed back in their rooms by 4 p.m.