Fire drill at nursing home called success

LUBEC — Firefighters, police, ambulance crews and the staff at Oceanview Nursing Home got straight A’s on an emergency pop quiz, rescuing a group of high school students in a disaster drill that lacked only smoke and flames for realism.

Six members of the Lubec High School Student Council were scattered throughout the two-story nursing home last Thursday night, taking the place of the residents for the drill.

“From the time the fire was reported to the time the last student was evacuated, took 14 minutes,” Administrator Margaret Brown said. “That is a fantastic response. We had fire trucks, police cars, ambulances to get into place, dozens of people with jobs to do, equipment to set up. It went off without a hitch.”

The high school volunteers were Terry Sprague, Beth Brown, Jonathan Marzoll, Allison Parker, Morgan Lord and Sherry Ashby. “We really appreciate their taking the time to help with this,” Brown said. “Obviously, we didn’t want our residents at any risk, but having these students to evacuate made it a real test for the firemen, the police and our staff.”

The drill was part of National Fire Safety Week activities. “We talked to the Fire Chief (Errol Tinker) about a full-fledged emergency drill; we agreed it was time to really put everyone to the test,” she said. “Of course, we tried to let people know it was just a test, but we had one staff member who didn’t know. She was off-duty at the time; she did the right thing. It’s good to know everyone is this well-prepared.”