NEW HARTFORD -- All 10 residents of a state-run home for the developmentally disabled in Oneida County were safely evacuated early Thursday from a fire that erupted in the building, state officials said.
Fire safety experts from the state quickly pinpointed the origin of the fire in a malfunctioning exhaust fan in a janitor closet, said Travis Proulx, spokesman for the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which operates the New Hartford facility.
"They were able to contain the damage," Proulx said, explaining that such buildings are designed to prevent the spread of fires. The people who live in the center have been moved to other nearby facilities, and officials are looking at repairing the building.
"The staff did an extraordinary job of carrying out the evacuation plan as it was supposed to happen," Proulx added.
OPWDD in recent months has overhauled its fire safety procedures, calling for more drills and closer cooperation with fire experts. The changes came in the wake of a March 2009 blaze that killed four disabled residents of a similar state-run group home in the Adirondack community of Wells.
Following that tragedy, investigations by the Times Union as well as the agency itself found lapses in fire drills at several similar facilities. OPWDD runs hundreds of small residences for the disabled across the state.
OPWDD, which used to be called the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, also is working more closely with the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control, and inspectors from that agency arrived at the structure soon after the fire, Proulx said.
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