Residents of the Granite Ledges assisted living and memory care unit huddled in the cafeteria of Concord Hospital late Friday night, evacuated from their apartments after a fire broke out in the senior care facility earlier in the evening.

Just before midnight on Valentine's Day, they waited for emergency officials to let them know if they could return to their bedrooms or would be brought to a new location.

Concord Fire evacuated 61 residents and as well as support staff after locating a fire in the attic of the building who were moved to the hospital via facility buses.

The combination of the building’s size with the medical needs of the patients intensified the required response, Concord Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Stone explained. 

“There’s two big problems, we have a huge life hazard because we have a lot of elderly folks here who can’t really take care of themselves,” he said. “We did call a lot of mutual aid in because of the type of building it is: it’s a huge building, it’s not a cookie cutter building.”

The initial call reported the smell of smoke, and crews located a fire in the roof area of the upper floors.  It took about an hour to knock the fire down, Stone said, and the cause was still being investigated late Saturday night. 

There was some confusion among residents, especially patients of the memory unit, Stone explained, making the evacuation more complicated. 

“The staff here did a great job of herding all of their people out and keeping them in one area,” Stone said. “Once we knew we did have an incident going on with a working fire, we were able to use some of the facility buses to take them over to Concord Hospital’s cafeteria where we’ve been caring for people over there.” 

Down the road at Concord Hospital, some family members strode briskly into the building to sit with their loved ones, many of whom sat with blankets over their shoulders. Medical staff from the hospital huddled together over laptops or knelt by patients, supported by paramedics from local fire departments and staff from peer facilities in the area to help ensure patients got needed medication and care.

It wasn’t clear yet, according to Stone, when residents would be able to return to the Ledges but he was optimistic that at least some would before the night’s end. 

“Thankfully, we were able to minimize a lot of the water damage. The damage is not as bad as it could have been,” Stone said. “I’m hoping that we’re not going to have to keep everybody out of here, but I think there are going to be some people displaced overnight.”