By Renee Worthing
Staff Writer
A voice over the intercom announced the beginning of an evacuation drill at Bradford Common in Kennebunk on June 11.
Employees launched into action, wheeling one resident at a time out of bedrooms and common areas.
As they assisted residents out of rooms, they closed the door behind them and affixed a red sticker to it, signifying the room was vacant.
Housekeeper Pam Sprague named the residents as they exited the building, and human resources representative Sherrie Daly checked names off a list. They consulted the sign-out sheet to determine which residents were out of the facility for the day and check the guest list to find out if there might be any people unaccounted for in the building.
Kennebunk Deputy Fire Chief David Cluff observed the evacuation process along with other emergency response personnel.
“We are here to monitor and, later, provide feedback,” he said.
Within 14 minutes, 75 residents and 38 employees evacuated the building and assembled in a back parking lot.
Before the drill, Cluff said one of the challenges the facility faced was the residents’ varying degrees of mobility, but afterward, he declared the exercise a success.
“Because we are a call fire department, our response time is about eight minutes,” Cluff said. “What they showed was if this had been a real emergency, they would have taken care of everything before we got here.”
He said the town of Kennebunk has been working on its emergency management plan, which includes helping train facilities like Bradford Common how to act on its own until help arrives.
“In a community-wide disaster, they may have to be independent and self-sustaining for 24, 48 or even 72 hours,” Cluff said.
Huntington Common and Bradford Common, owned by McLean, Virginia-based Sunrise Senior Living, owns more than 450 nursing and assisted living facilities throughout the United States, Canada and Germany.
Bradford Common Facilities Manager Adam Hunnewell said Hurricane Katrina affected Sunrise-owned facilities in southern states in 2005.
“They [Sunrise Senior Living] decided it would be a good idea to be prepared for disasters,” Hunnewell said.
Hunnewell said according to Sunrise Senior Living policy, employees of Bradford Commons and its sister facility Huntington Commons, participate in quarterly emergency drills.
He said he was “ecstatic” with the employees’ performance during the drill.
Executive Director Peggy Eberle said if residents of Bradford Common needed to be relocated during a community-wide disaster, the facility has a contract with Trailway Transportation which would transport them to Middle School of the Kennebunks, a designated emergency shelter.
Hunnewell said contracts are also in place with vendors that could supply emergency generators, satellite phones, water, air conditioners and any other necessity.
“All it would take is one call to Sunrise [Senior Living],” he said.
Cluff said because the Huntington Common building was not physically connected to the Bradford Common building, Huntington could be used as a temporary shelter if there was an emergency that affected only the Bradford building.
Eberle said letters were mailed to family members and powers of attorneys alerting them of the drill, but residents were not forewarned.
“There is no warning in a real disaster,” she said.
Bradford Common resident Ella Eldard said the exercise reminded her of emergency drills her first and second grade students participated in during World War II when she taught school.
“I hope they take it seriously if it [a disaster] ever happens,” Eldard said.
Hunnewell said the staff was “calm and focused” during the exercise.
“They worked as a team, just like they always do,” Eberle said.