Part of the damaged building on Tuesday night. (Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com)
In the wake of the deadly explosion at the Silver Lake Nursing Home and Bristol Health and Rehab Center, an official and state and federal inspection reports are shedding light on safety at the 174-bed facility.
Federal and local investigators are investigating the cause of the fatal suspected gas explosion that killed two people and injured roughly 20 on Tuesday afternoon.
The explosion might have been related to the odor of gas that PECO crews were investigating shortly beforehand.
The facility, which county records indicate was built in 1970, was recently purchased by Saber Healthcare Group. The company has not returned a request for comment.
While it is unclear how many people were living in the nursing home at the time of the explosion, a report on Medicare.gov indicates that the facility has an average of 151.5 residents, which is higher than the state average of 103.
Bristol Township Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Dippolito said his department conducted an annual inspection of the center earlier this year.
The file was closed, which indicated safety issues were either non-existent or resolved, he said.
Dippolito noted that municipal inspections focus on commercial building safety and are less rigorous than those conducted by nursing home regulators.
Prior to Tuesday, the facility had no recent gas-related service calls, according to Dippolito.
Data from Medicare.gov paints a picture of the facility’s operations.
The center holds an overall rating of one star out of a possible five, the lowest possible score. While its staffing earned four stars, it received only two stars for quality measures and one star for health inspections.
The facility’s most recent health inspection on Sept. 26, 2024, resulted in 24 citations, more than double the Pennsylvania average of 10.1 and the national average of 9.7.
Over the last three years, the center has been the subject of 200 health-related complaints that resulted in citations, and it was ordered to pay $418,359 in federal fines in 2024.
A September 2024 fire safety inspection posted on Medicare.gov showed no problems.
State inspection records show recent physical plant deficiencies.
During a Pennsylvania Department of Health fire inspection on October 29, the facility failed to provide accurate portable floor plans required for emergency use. The plans must detail smoke barriers, fire walls, and emergency movement routes.
The October inspection report also detailed several life-safety violations, including:
The facility had been given a deadline of Nov. 30 to correct the floor plan deficiencies. It was unclear if those problems were fixed.
The investigation into the source of the gas leak and the subsequent ignition remains ongoing.
LevittownNow.com Publisher Tom Sofield contributed to this reporting.
