The Globe has a nice story about the ambulance drivers, firemen, sandwich makers and others who helped the elderly and disabled at the Weeks House have a merry Christmas.
“This generosity and kindness was my best gift this holiday.”
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
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What a lovely story. Kudos to the ambulance drivers, firemen, and sandwich makers.
Hurrah for Cataldo Ambulance and Sandwich Works!
Boo for Newton Community Development Foundation!
The generosity of Cataldo Ambulance and The Sandwich Works are the silver lining to an otherwise bad story; one of dangerously inadequate planning.
A week to get a critical part for the one elevator in a building filled with stranded elderly and disabled?
Yes, one non-shipping day (Christmas) was in the middle of that week, but in an emergency, you can get anything from around the country in 24 hours.
The building houses the elderly and disabled on three floors. They rely on one elevator to move the residents. The stairwells are original to the building- a former junior high school- steep with shallow treads, unsuitable for the elderly and disabled. So, there’s only one way for residents to get off the floor that they live on, the elevator.
Over last weekend the elevator broke. Otis elevator was called in and for some reason the part was not ordered until Tuesday. Originally, the residents were told that if they needed help to contact their family and friends. Some of these people are in their late nineties. Walking down three flights can be a life threatening activity. Cataldo Ambulance generously helped, but others tried to call and couldn’t get through to them. In any case, Weeks House management should not have to rely on the generosity of others to move the residents around.
There was little to no management there beyond 4:00 pm, leaving very elderly people feeling that they were stranded on a mountaintop.
Considering the population that they serve, Newton Community Development Foundation needs to look at this incident (which could have been tragic) and devise a better plan, for all their buildings.
As a start, installing at least one stairlift as a backup to the elevator would be wise.
Terry – thank you for the additional info. It is shocking that housing for the elderly would have only one elevator, for precisely this reason.
As a basic, if my heating system went down on Christmas or whatever, I’d expect service no matter what the date. (Otis Elevator is no fly-by company…) For someone in a “specialized wheelchair” to be lifted down and then back up again within such a situation without an escape route is appalling. This situation and the related policy matters needs attention on many levels. City Hall knows if this was a smaller situation the landlord would face many issues with not addressing this type of thing as part of an inspection.
A posting in Dec-26 with no community responses by Dec-27 has me wondering what Affordable Housing resources are here in our area? Is this Affordable Housing coalition all fluff and theory or is City of Newton intending to give each and every Affordable member safety and comfort?
I hope this building has good sprinklers. What’s the evacuation plan in case of a fire, when people aren’t supposed to use elevators?
The elevator was finally fixed as of 10pm last night. Six days later (or seven, depending on who’s story you listen to).
It’s unclear what oversight the city of Newton has on the group that owns these properties other than fire department regulations since it’s a private, non-profit developer. They own Weeks, Warren, Cassleman and a couple of others. I would hope that this incident is a catalyst for the addition of a stair lift, maintenance on key equipment (elevator) and re-examining safety procedures. A thirty year old elevator, the only transport, was obviously not well maintained- that’s a big problem.
There are sprinklers in the hallways but as far as I know, not in the rooms (they have kitchens).
The evacuation plan: the fire department has a list of residents who have self-reported that they are not able to walk down stairs (in the event of a fire the elevator is not used), those residents should wait in their rooms and the firemen will come and carry them down the stairs. That may be a standard procedure but it feels shaky.
Let’s hope that a close look is given to the machinery and procedures at Weeks and Warren houses (old converted buildings).
Not to be too picky but….
The people who drive the ambulance are either EMT’s or Paramedics.
Terry Malloy — Were residents offered a shelter to stay while the elevator was down?
Hoss- I think the residents viewed it as an inconvenience (in some instances a big inconvenience) but not enough to warrant leaving their apartments. To my knowledge no alternative housing was offered. As the week went on there was some pizza and other efforts at outreach. I think the situation is more alarming to us younger, able-bodied folk. Hey, these guys got through World War 2, everything rolls off their backs!
It’s very alarming to this non-able-bodied person.