Three people have been found dead at a care home in Dorset and four more have been taken to hospital.
Dozens of other residents were evacuated to a nearby church hall, some of them in wheelchairs, while places at other homes were found.
Gas engineers were on the scene, with carbon monoxide poisoning at the 48-bed Gainsborough care home being an early line of inquiry.
Dorset police said: “We received a report at 7.16am to three people who had been found deceased at a care home in Ulwell Road in Swanage.
“Inquiries are being carried out to establish the full circumstances. The families of those who have died have been informed and the coroner has been notified. The deaths are currently being treated as unexplained.
“Four other people have been taken to hospital as a precaution and other residents of the address evacuated. At this time there is nothing to indicate any risk to the wider public.”
Dorset council said that many of the residents were “vulnerable people with significant care needs” and it was working with them to understand how to meet their needs and identify their next steps.
The Rev Jo Levasier, team vicar at All Saints Church, where evacuated residents were taken, said many of them were very distressed.
She said: “I got a phone call at 7:45am from the care home asking if we could help out and open up the building. About half an hour later people started arriving.
“The local community also got involved and were brilliant. People brought blankets, food, tea, coffee and some people from the local school came down to talk to people.
“We now hope to get everyone out of here by tonight. I don’t think they know what happened but they know they can’t go back to the home.”
Salama Ghounaim, 34, who works in the kitchen at the home, said: “The decision was to take everybody out of the building to the church. The residents are all very elderly, some of them almost 100 years old.”
Gary Suttle, the Swanage councillor at Dorset council, said there was a “suspicion” that the incident “could be attributable to carbon monoxide”.
The home is run by Agincare, a family-owned business founded in 1986 in Weymouth, and now employing 4,000 people at more than 90 locations across England.
A spokesperson for the home said: “The wellbeing of residents is always our overriding priority, and part of the local business continuity plan was to transfer residents in a managed way.
“We will continue to work with the lead local authority services to return residents into their home at the earliest opportunity.”
The Care Quality Commission rated the home “good” in a report published in 2021, which said “risks within the home environment were robustly managed”. It quoted a relative as saying: “We don’t see anything unsafe. My [family member] was a fireman, and we were brought up with health and safety in mind, and we don’t spot anything unsafe.” Another said: “They are very safety conscious.”
On its website the home says it “provides a safe and homely environment within a real village community, positioned within easy reach of the GP practice, village shop, bakery and cafes with the beautiful seafront just a short distance away”.
The home’s Facebook page shows images of residents going on trips including to a tank museum, safari park and circus. There are also images of residents being entertained at the home by a violinist and of a visit from a therapy dog.
The daughter of one of the residents who was evacuated safely described the staff as “fantastic” and said they would be devastated at what had happened.
Carbon monoxide causes about 60 deaths and 200 hospitalisations every year in the UK, according to the West Yorkshire fire service.
Source: theguardian.com
