Syracuse, NY -- Some residents at a troubled Syracuse nursing home were forced out of their rooms on New Year’s Eve after a water pipe burst, causing a ceiling to collapse and ruining their personal belongings, two family members of residents told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
Syracuse firefighters responded to “multiple” water leaks at 9:40 p.m. Sunday at the Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 918 James St., fire Capt. Matthew Craner said.
One break involved a pipe for the heating system, while another happened at a broken fire suppression sprinkler head, Craner said.
Photos submitted by a relative of resident showed a gaping hole in the ceiling of one room. Below, there’s debris on the bed and floor next to a Christmas tree and a display of Mickey Mouse collectables.
The ceiling of a resident's room collapsed after a water leak New Year's Eve at Bishop Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, in Syracuse.Provided photo
Another loved one sent photos of two rooms barricaded by yellow caution tape and an industrial fan blowing humidity out of the hallway.
A Bishop spokesman confirmed that residents were relocated from the affected rooms without injury. The incident happened when a heat pipe leaked close to a sprinkler head, activating the fire alarm and alerting the fire department, said the spokesman, Jeffrey Jacomowitz, of Centers Health Care, which is Bishop’s Bronx-based management company.
It’s just the latest incident at Bishop, which was designated in March 2022 as a “special focus facility.” That means it’s among the nation’s worst 89 nursing homes and is under special scrutiny by regulators for persistent, serious care problems.
Bishop was sanctioned in 2021 for failing to supervise a 79-year-old resident who died after falling from a third-story window.
State health inspectors visited it five times in 2022, more than any other nursing home in Onondaga County, and four times in the first half of 2023. More recent inspection data was not immediately available Wednesday. The state health department said that it was investigating the water leak, but did not comment further.
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Sharon Capers, whose mom lives on the floor where the water leaked, said it’s just the latest example of shoddy care at the nursing home.
“It’s just a reoccurring thing,” Capers said. “They don’t do anything.”
Another person who contacted syracuse.com expressed frustration that the facility did not alert families of loved ones in the hours after the pipe burst.
“A lot has happened at the Bishop, but I never thought in a million years that something like this would happen and no one would contact us or keep us apprised of what the next steps are going to be,” said the family member.
Doors to two residents' rooms were barricaded with yellow caution tape after a New Year's Eve water leak forced residents to be relocated.Provided by Sharon Capers
The fire department said that the water leaks forced electricity to be temporarily turned off to some areas of the facility as a precaution. The water leaks were stopped, the sprinkler head replaced and the fire suppression system was refilled, Craner said.
However, the fire alarm was not successfully reset, requiring staff to keep watch for fire under fire department protocols, Craner said. The fire department will follow up in coming days to confirm that the system is successfully repaired, he added.
Repairs to fix the water damage should be complete in about 10 days, the facility’s spokesman said. Room temperatures were not affected by the problem with the heating system, he added.
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-6070.