Original call was fire alarm. First arriving unit had heavy smoke from basement & from electrical outlets. He called a working fire. There is no key to locked basement door, so they needed to make forcable entry. When they made access, they reported heavy fire.
About 8pm I heard the fire was in the electrical substation in the basement. The building is unfit for occupation until the smoke damage is cleaned up. I never heard how long it took to get a knock on the fire. About an hour in, Alleghany Power was not yet on the scene. Fire command asked the dispatcher to tell the power company "we would like someone here today".
There was confusion at the onset where to get buses for transport, where to send them, and how many needed to go to hospitals. At one point, they were told the gym was being used at North MS. So someone said, "we wlll commandeer it". In the end, they used the cafeteria. Red Cross brought in cots.
The final count was about 110, but that. number is _nursing home_ patients. Only non-ambulatory & oxygen dependent patients went to hospitals at first. I'm not sure what that number was. However about 10pm, about 40 more were to be moved to hospitals in the region, simply because they had more needs then the shelter setting could offer.
Berkeley activated it's EMS Disaster Plan, and there was a general EMS alarm for both Berkely & Jefferson counties.
NBC25 & Tv3Winchester both sent camera crews to the scene.
Steve