Home evacuated and four others taken to hospital, with early line of inquiry that residents may have been affected by carbon monoxide
A police officer outside the Gainsborough care home. Gas company engineers were to carry out checks. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Three people have died at a care home in Dorset and four more have been taken to hospital.
Dorset police said: “We received a report at 7.16am to three people who had been found deceased at a care home in Ulwell Road in Swanage.
“Inquiries are being carried out to establish the full circumstances and we are continuing to liaise with our partner agencies.
“The families of those who have died have been informed and the coroner has been notified. The deaths are currently being treated as unexplained.
“Four other people have been taken to hospital as a precaution and other residents of the address evacuated to a safe location.
“There remains a significant multi-agency presence in place at the address and a cordon remains in place as we work with partners to carry out further inquiries. At this time there is nothing to indicate any risk to the wider public.”
One early line of inquiry is that residents at the 48-bed home may have been affected by carbon monoxide.
South Western ambulance service sent a hazard response team to the Gainsborough care home in Swanage and gas company engineers were standing by waiting to carry out checks.
Gary Suttle, the Swanage councillor at Dorset council, said there was a “suspicion” that the incident “could be attributable to carbon monoxide”.
Suttle added: “All the other residents have been taken to All Saints church and are going to be relocated and looked after. They seem healthy and well. For Swanage, it is a shocking event for a small community.”
About 40 vulnerable residents and staff were taken to the church for shelter. An appeal was issued for locals to bring in blankets, electric heaters and hot drinks.
A South Western ambulance service spokesperson said it was called at 5.20am on Wednesday and sent a hazard response team, 10 double-crewed ambulances and “a significant number of additional resources”.
Katie Lobban, a spokesperson for Southern Gas Network said: “We were called to Gainsborough care home in Swanage earlier today in our capacity as the national gas emergency service for the south of England. Our engineers are waiting for access to the building to complete safety checks.”
People living near the scene in Ulwell Road saw residents being evacuated, some in wheelchairs.
A spokesperson for the home said: “The wellbeing of residents is always our overriding priority, and part of the local business continuity plan was to transfer residents in a managed way to a local village hall and church, where they remain safe and well.
“We will continue to work with the lead local authority services to return residents into their home at the earliest opportunity.”
The home is run by Agincare, a family-owned business founded in 1986 in Weymouth, and now employing 4,000 people at more than 90 locations across England.
The Care Quality Commission rated the home “good” in a report published in 2021, which said “risks within the home environment were robustly managed”. It quoted a relative as saying: “We don’t see anything unsafe. My [family member] was a fireman, and we were brought up with health and safety in mind, and we don’t spot anything unsafe.” Another said: “They are very safety conscious.”
On its website the home says it “provides a safe and homely environment within a real village community, positioned within easy reach of the GP practice, village shop, bakery and cafes with the beautiful seafront just a short distance away”.
Carbon monoxide causes about 60 deaths and 200 hospitalisations every year in the UK, according to the West Yorkshire fire service.
