Montgomery County nursing home residents transported to other locations after air conditioner fire

Residents at a nursing-care facility in Montgomery County were evacuated after a small fire broke out in the building Wednesday night, officials said.

The Huntingdon Valley Fire Company responded to a fire alarm at ManorCare Health Services in Lower Moreland around 9:15 p.m. A fire in an air-conditioning unit was quickly extinguished.

A total of 103 patients and residents were initially evacuated from the building while eight people with "high clinical needs" were sent to the hospital. Fifty-five were able to return to the building while the remaining 40 were transported to neighboring ManorCare locations, said Julie Beckert, a spokesperson for HCR ManorCare.

Residents were beginning to return to the Lower Moreland location Thursday afternoon, Beckert said.

"Our employees did an outstanding job putting our emergency processes in place," she said.

The evacuation ended around 3 a.m. Thursday after a contractor reset the facility's fire-suppression system, said John Corcoran, spokesman for the county Department of Public Safety.

No residents were injured, and one employee was treated on location.

"We are grateful for all mutual companies who assisted on this incident," the fire company wrote on its Facebook page.

In November, a fast-moving fire at the Barclay Friends senior citizens home in West Chester that investigators believe was caused by a cigarette claimed the lives of four residents.