Residents of a long-term care facility are adjusting well at the Mill River Resort.
A total of 47 residents were relocated to the West Prince facility following a major fire at Chez Nous Co-Operative in Wellington on Monday night.
“Our main focus is our elderly people,” said Chez Nous Co-Operative president Marcel Richard. “We are trying to keep as much normality as we can when we know it’s not normal.
“We are trying the best to do that with them. (The residents) are doing a great job.”
Mill River Resort president Geoffrey Irving said, given the circumstances, the residents appear to be adjusting well. He added a big reason for that is the staff of Chez Nous.
“The staff from Chez Nous has been fantastic as far as making them as comfortable as possible and working with our staff here,” said Irving.
Richard cannot say enough about the work of the Chez Nous staff. He praised their devotion to the elderly and said this passion for their work has not gone unnoticed by resort staff.
“We have an awesome staff,” said Richard. “Somebody stopped me in the hall and said, ‘We are just blown (away) at how they are dealing with this under the circumstances. We know that you guys are all stressed, and they still have a smile on their faces, and they are so compassionate with the (residents). We are so impressed.’”
Answering the call
The Wellington Fire Department, which was dispatched to the scene at 9:30 p.m., received assistance from the Tyne Valley, Miscouche and New London departments in battling the fire.
The P.E.I. Fire Marshal’s Office was back on site Wednesday morning to continue its investigation. A spokesperson told The Guardian in an email that no further information is available at this time.
Richard does not expect any reports for a few days.
“There is some damage in one area and a lot of smoke all through the building,” said Richard. “We know there is going to be a lot of work to be done before we can start moving back.”
After initially being taken to the Wellington Legion, the residents were all transported to the Mill River facility in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“We were able to get them into their rooms, and from there we have been trying to make them as comfortable as possible,” said Irving, who noted the facility will house as many of the residents as they can for as long as needed.
Irving said renovations are finishing up on 12 lower-level rooms, and he added staff and contractors have committed to work around the clock to have those rooms “move-in ready” by the end of Thursday.
“We will dedicate those newly-renovated rooms to the residents of Chez Nous, and from there it’s a bit of stick-handling from our availability of regular hotel rooms and try to accommodate as many of the residents as possible,” said Irving.
Weekends are busier as far as rented rooms go. Irving said the resort is around 75- to 80-per-cent capacity” for Saturday night, and there is more availability for Friday.
“We can fully accommodate up until Saturday, and if things open up and these new rooms become ready we should be able to keep most of them in-house here,” said Irving.
Richard said, if need be, some residents have the physical ability to move in with family members temporarily. He said staff were making calls about this possibility on Wednesday.
