Fire at Nursing Home - Assisted Living Center Causes Injuries

Eight-year-old Elizabeth Salas is a hero, according to her grandmother, who was with the child when they were forced by fire along with dozens of other people from the Park Meadows assisted-living complex in east Fort Worth.

At least five people were treated for minor smoke inhalation after the blaze at the complex, said Fire Department spokesman Lt. Kent Worley. Firefighters doused the blaze in about an hour, but the cause of the fire was unknown at 1 p.m.

Sixty seven people were evacuated from one of the three three-story buildings at the complex in the 2700 block of Yeager Street. Rain started as a sprinkle at the start of the emergency but then grew to a downpour. Some had to be lowered from the second story on ladders, Worley said.

Flames swept the building where Elizabeth was spending the day with grandmother Anita Garza, who uses a wheelchair. Worley said the fire was reported in a second-floor apartment in the center of the building on the south end of the complex about 11:15 a.m.

A maintenance worker heard the alarm, located the fire and helped one woman to safety, Worley said. The spokesman credited the worker and a good alarm system for helping firefighters respond quickly to the blaze.

Elizabeth said she told other people to get out, and then she followed her grandmother to safety.

The child, clutching her grandmother's Chihuahua dog, seemed remarkably calm outside the complex, despite the ordeal.

"That's because when I was worried, I took a deep breath," she said. "And then I told myself, 'OK, don't be worried.'"

When asked if her granddaughter was a hero, Garza said, "She sure is. She saved my dog."

Elizabeth held Maya, the Chihuahua, until her mother, Ana Garza, arrived from her job at John Peter Smith Hospital and put the pet in her car.

"My mom called and said the building was on fire, and that they had her outside and that it was raining and she was cold," Ana Garza said. "As I drove up there was gray smoke and I could see the flames and I thought, 'Oh, my God.'

"I became so sick."

Garza was reunited with her daughter and mother at the scene that was clogged with firefighters, ambulance crews, and displaced residents, many of them moving up and down the street with wheelchairs. Rain was sprinkling as firefighters battled the blaze, but by 1 p.m. the scene was cloaked in a downpour.

Fire officials summoned the Red Cross to assist displaced residents. Worley said the building was uninhabitable with damage estimated at $400,000.

Several elderly people were seen boarding two buses provided by The T, the city's public transportation system. One bus was designated for injured people to be evaluated by MedStar personnel, but none of those people wanted to go to the hospital, Worley said.

Rev. Jim Chandler, pastor of nearby Meadowbrook United Methodist Church said his staff was preparing to receive displaced residents to church facilities.

"We didn't know how big it was until I actually got here," Chandler said, walking briskly through the heavy rain. "We had set aside today for staff meetings and now this is our staff meeting!"