About 50 emergency workers helped transport, walk, and roll nursing home residents down Palm Street in an evacuation caused by a sparking power line and power shut down.At around 4:00pm, a sparking power line was noticed and a small backyard fire caused the neighborhood evacuation and the power to be turned off to the Bel-Air Lodge.
The Turlock Irrigation District was called out to restore the power and was expected to have the problem fixed within four to five hours.
Thirty patients and care workers of the Bel-Air Lodge were moved to the City of Turlock War Memorial Building where they would stay until power was restored at their nursing home. Since it would be late at night before the power was restored, the patients would be spending the night and transported back to the Bel-Air Lodge on Saturday morning.
Those who would walk did, some were transported by ambulances and city busses while some residents confined to their beds were pushed down the street by emergency workers.
There were no structure fires stemming from the sparking power line or backyard fire and no injuries occurred at any point during the incident.
Turlock Police, Fire, Public Facilities Maintenance, American Medical Response, and the American Red Cross all helped in the evacuation and continued care until after all the patients are returned to their nursing home.
