96 Residents Evacuated From Nursing Home
Ninety-six elderly residents were briefly evacuated from a nursing home after fumes spread through the facility Thursday afternoon.
None of the Simi Valley Care & Rehabilitation Center’s residents or its 50 staff members appeared injured, according to Director Cynthia Paulsen.
She said the staff would be able to determine within 24 hours if any patients had suffered pulmonary problems.
The evacuation lasted about three hours.
The incident started about 2 p.m. when employee Carlos Jordano poured a bottle of industrial-strength drain cleaner down a sink in the janitor’s closet.
About 4:30 p.m., he poured a quart of chlorine down the same sink. A chemical reaction between the two produced a cloud that wafted up from the drain.
“I quickly ran out of the room, and I sealed the door with tape,” Jordano said.
Evacuations began from areas nearest the sealed closet.
As the patients huddled in blankets in the center’s parking lot, Simi Valley police and Ventura County firefighters closed off the building in the 5200 block of East Los Angeles Avenue. Nurses watched over the patients, even wheeling medicine carts into the lot.
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