A new lawsuit that raises fresh questions has been filed in connection with the fatal fire late last year at the Barclay Friends senior citizens’ facility in West Chester, alleging that the facility’s builder deviated from plans by failing to install fire-resistant material — which would have slowed the fast-moving blaze — in the exterior walls.
In the suit, filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, the estate of Thomas Parker, 92, and Delores Parker, 89, two of the four elderly residents who died in the blaze, states that the couple died “terrifying, gruesome, agonizing, and lonely deaths.”
The Parker estate’s lawyers, James McEldrew, Daniel Purtell, and Ian Bryson, paint the couple as facing an especially desperate situation during the fire. The suit says both suffered from dementia and, although capable of walking, were accustomed to using an elevator to get downstairs from their second-story unit. When the fire broke out, the elevator automatically stopped running in the two-story building. The Parkers, parents of three daughters, died in their room.
The fast-moving fire began on the evening of Nov. 16 in the rear of the personal-care section of the seven-wing complex, and was likely caused by a tossed cigarette, officials have said. The
five-alarm blaze gutted the 41-resident section. The six other wings, far less damaged, were home to some 100 residents receiving nursing care. Also killed in the fire were Theresa Malloy, 85, and Mildred E. Gadde, 93.
The suit, filed Tuesday, also blames the fire on an “unenforced nonsmoking policy,” an “improperly constructed” outside wall that permitted the fire “to breach the building’s interior,” a “woefully inadequate” sprinkler network that had been erroneously turned off before the blaze, a “poor evacuation plan,” and a lack of water available to firefighters.
A spokesman for Barclay Friends did not return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.
When the facility was planned, the suit claims, architectural drawings called for half-inch thick gypsum board to be installed under exterior vinyl siding. Gypsum, a soft fire-resistant mineral used in construction, would have stopped or slowed the spread of the fire from outside the structure to the inside.
But post-fire inspection, according to the suit, showed that the board was never installed. The suit faulted Barclay Friends and its architects for not ensuring that the gypsum board had been installed.
The suit, filed Tuesday, also blames the fire on an “unenforced nonsmoking policy,” an “improperly constructed” outside wall that permitted the fire “to breach the building’s interior,” a “woefully inadequate” sprinkler network that had been erroneously turned off before the blaze, a “poor evacuation plan,” and a lack of water available to firefighters.
A spokesman for Barclay Friends did not return a telephone call seeking comment Friday.