Second fire under review

Photo: Darren Handschuh - File photo

Following the second act of arson at a Vernon senior care facility, Interior Health is once again reviewing the incident to see if anything can be done to prevent it from happening again.

In December 2015, a resident of Noric House started a fire in his room. Staff quickly put the fire out, but a nurse was taken to hospital to be checked for smoke inhalation.

On Sunday, a resident again started a fire, this time setting his mattress ablaze.

Vernon Fire Rescue was called, but the fire was out by the time crews arrived.

“It was fast action by the nurse that prevented it from being more serious,” said deputy fire Chief Lawrie Skolrood. “It's serious enough that it happened a second time.”

Neither Skolrood, nor IH could confirm both fires were started by the same resident.

“The safety of our residents and staff is of the utmost importance to us, so we are taking this incident very seriously,” said Karen Omelchuk, residential services health service administrator, adding after the December 2015 fire, “additional emergency training was implemented and an enhanced safety plan was put in place."

“IH is investigating this incident to see if anything can be improved upon in the future, in order to prevent a situation like this from happening again.”