Broken water pipe forces evacuation of seniors at North Bay LTC home

This is the second major “pipe burst” since 2019 at the long-term care facility

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A fire suppression pipe “burst” in Cassellholme Home for the Aged forced more than a dozen residents to be evacuated to another area, according to the long-term care’s executive director.

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Jamie Lowery said last weekend Cassellholme had a pipe burst, which flooded out an entire unit, almost reaching the front desk.

“The water was above the knee in some areas,” Lowery said during Thursday’s monthly board meeting.

He said staff and management had to evacuate the end of a unit in order to deal with the mess.

“We had to move 19 residents to new accommodations, move their meds and care plans, had it all cleaned up and within 48 hours those residents were returned back to their rooms.”

Lowery said the help of seven non-union staff who came in on their days off to lend a hand helped alleviate clean-up measures while nursing staff continued to provide care for residents.

“The care was uninterrupted,” he said. “Among all the great Covid work staff are doing we’re also cleaning up busted water pipes.”

This isn’t the first time a portion of Cassellholme has went under water.

The long term care home had a similar situation with a pipe bursting, flooding out a section of the facility in January 2019.

A family member who was visiting a loved one told The Nugget a pipe burst and flooded a portion of the first floor within the long-term care home.

He said 50 residents were displaced.

The restoration company had to pull up the baseboards and walls.

Family members said there was two to three inches of water on the floor and water was even backed up in the sinks and toilets upstairs.