Cigarette in bed causes small fire at nursing home

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 9, 2007

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ST. PETERSBURG - A small fire on Sunday temporarily displaced 47 elderly people at a nursing home.

Second-floor residents at the Coquina Key Health and Rehabilitation Center, 435 42nd Ave. S, had to be evacuated to the first floor after a fire broke out around noon in room 217.

"The sprinkler system put the fire out, and kept it in check until we got here, " said Assistant Fire Chief William Jolley.

No one was injured, Jolley said, but a staff member was treated on the scene for breathing problems.

It took St. Petersburg firefighters about 20 minutes to fully control the fire, which an investigator determined was caused by smoking materials. Cigarettes and a lighter were found in the room, Jolley said.

"It started in a bed, " he said.

A damage estimate was not yet available. The fire didn't spread to any other rooms.

While firefighters worked, third- and first-floor patients remained in their rooms, Jolley said. In fact, he said, it was safer and less dangerous to keep everyone inside.

"It's a lot better to keep them indoors, " he said "Outside, they'd have to deal with the heat."

A woman who answered the phone at the center said there would be no comment.