On the evening of July 3, Echelon Care and Rehabilitation Facility reported to the police that their HVAC system had failed.
The facility subsequently attempted to repair the damaged system.
As a precaution, around midnight on July 3, going into July 4, the facility, which has an agreement with Eastern High School, contacted the school to prepare the building in case residents needed to come over.
James Poland, the fire chief of the Voorhees township fire department, said that at 5:30 a.m., police checked back to see the status of the repair.
As they arrived, the repair team tried flushing the system to refill it with water in order to cool it.
Poland said that because it wasn’t cooling quick enough they decided to evacuate.
At the same time as they decided to evacuate, the repairs failed, prevent the air conditioning from turning on.
Residents began being moved out of the facility at around 9 a.m. on July 4, with everyone moved into the high school by noon.
Some residents walked across the street with assistance, a majority came over in wheelchairs and then the remainder were put onto buses and vans and driven across the street.
Over the following hours, Poland said that between six and 10 patients were taken by their families, while a majority were sent to facilities across the state, ranging from Perth Amboy to Pennsauken to Woodbury, with about 50 patients left at the school.
Poland said it was easier to first move patients to the high school then send them to other facilities.
“It’s quicker to move everyone directly across the street because there isn’t a check in,” Poland said. “And obviously every patient that left had to have paperwork with them with their medications and all their demographics so that the receiving facility would be able to care and take care of them and receive them. So that was a slower process.”
At around 5 p.m. on July 4, the air conditioning was properly repaired and began cooling again, a process that took longer because of the temperature.
On July 3 in Voorhees, high temperatures reached 101 degrees Fahrenheit and 99 degrees on July 4, though at the time the system shut off, it was around 74 degrees.
Poland said at around 7:30 p.m. on July 4, the Department of Health deemed the facility cool enough that they could start taking patients back into the facility.
Over the next hour and a half, emergency services moved the remaining 50 patients still at the high school back into the facility.
Poland said they put out a call for transport and got vehicles from across the state and even two buses from the Philadelphia fire department.
Poland said several Voorhees vehicles and personnel were there from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., including two fire trucks and several ambulances, along with a police chief, lieutenant, sergeant there, with some officers helping to direct traffic.
“Even though the emergency was over, as we moved them into the high school and they were stable there, it wasn’t a long term placement … until we can get these residents either back into their building or a facility where they can be able to house and sleep and stay comfortably, we’re kind of committed,” Poland said. “So we were there the entire time with them.”
When going back, all the remaining residents at the high school could either walk or take wheelchairs back across the street to the facility.
Throughout the evening of July 3 and on July 4, no injuries were reported among the residents.
Poland said the facility has been working on transporting everyone back to their building on Laurel Oak Road, though he doesn’t know their status as of July 7.
It is unclear at this time if all the patients have been returned to the facility.
Echelon Care and Rehabilitation Facility did not respond to a request for comment.
On July 23, 2019, a similar issue arose at the same facility, requiring residents to also be transported to the high school because the HVAC stopped working.
It took about four hours to get the air conditioning working again in 2019.
