DANIA BEACH, Fla. – Residents of a Dania Beach assisted living facility were evacuated by rescue crews Friday afternoon after part of the facility lost power.
The outage shortly after 2 p.m. affected 16 patients at The Residence at Dania Beach who were quarantined with COVID-19, officials said. Because they could not be safely moved to another area of the community, they were transferred to area hospitals.
Those patients were transferred out of an abundance of caution, not because they were in distress, Broward Sheriff Office Fire Rescue Chief Michael Kane said. They are expected to be OK and to be returned to the assisted living facility soon.
Power has since been restored at the facility at 150 Stirling Road where nearly 100 people receive care. An administrator there said a downed tree in the area caused the outage.
Florida Power & Light workers were at the scene getting the power back on.
It’s unclear why the building’s generator didn’t keep the power on. The administrator would only say that the generators don’t restore power to all portions of the building.
During Hurricane Irma in 2017, a dozen people died at the Hollywood Hills Rehabilitation Center after that facility lost air conditioning. It led to the state passing a law mandating all nursing homes and assisted living facilities to have a backup generator and emergency power plans.