Florida Nursing Home Deaths After Irma Prompt Criminal Probe
- Victims found in heat-baked facility following hurricane
- Millions in state still without power from Irma’s fallout
Patients are evacuated from The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills on Sept. 13, 2017.
Photographer: Amy Beth Bennett/Florida Sun Sentinel via AP ImagesPolice are conducting a criminal investigation into the death of eight people in a Hollywood, Florida, nursing home after Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the facility, as millions of utility customers were still without electricity following the storm’s sweep through the state.
Three of the victims were found dead at the nursing home and the others died on the way to the hospital or after they arrived there, Hollywood Police Chief Tom Sanchez said at a news conference. After getting a call at 4 a.m. Wednesday that someone had died at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, police arrived to find it was extremely hot on the building’s second floor. In addition to fatalities, they found other residents who were gravely ill.