Sprinklers could have stopped Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire: video
- AAP
- August 06, 2012
The sprinkler test shows lives could have been saved at Quakers Hill, argues a pensioners' group. Source: Supplied
A VIDEO from NSW Fire and Rescue shows that a fire sprinkler system could have saved lives during the Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire in western Sydney, a pensioners' group says.
The Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association (CPSA) has uploaded a Youtube video made by NSW Fire and Rescue showing the recreation of the deadly fire.
"The video of the reconstruction shows the difference between how the Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire behaved and how it would have behaved had the home been fitted with fire sprinkler system," policy officer Amelia Christie said in a statement.
"There's no doubt that lives would have been saved had the Quakers Hill Nursing Home been protected by a fire sprinkler system.
Ms Christie said the tragedy was not an isolated event.
"NSW Fire and Rescue says there have been 1762 fires in nursing homes in NSW since 1991 and over 200 injuries," she said.
"There have been 44 fatalities that have been directly linked to nursing home fires over the last two decades, though more people have died later in hospital due to fire-related injuries."
Roger Dean, 36, who worked as a nurse at Quakers Hill Nursing Home, has been charged with 10 counts of murder over two fires that broke out in the facility on November 18 last year.
Three elderly residents died during the inferno and a further eight died from injuries afterwards.
CPSA said it obtained the video under the NSW Government Information (Public Access) Act.
