Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of a nursing home fire in Nashville that killed 16 people.
More than one hundred firefighters were called to the National Healthcare Corporation nursing home on Patterson Street in west Nashville. The facility lacked sprinklers, and many of the elderly patients could not escape the fire on their own.
In the wake of the blaze over thirty lawsuits were filed against Murfreesboro-based NHC. The last two lawsuits were settled in 2006, though the cause of the fire was never determined.
The disaster was a watershed for national fire-safety regulation. This summer the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services issued a rule saying all long-term care facilities must have sprinklers by August of 2013.
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