ST. JOHNS, Fla. — The daughter of a resident of The Blake at St. Johns senior living center in St. Johns County is speaking out about how the last week after a fire has been handled.
St. Johns Fire Rescue says a fire August 16 happened about 9 p.m. after lightning struck the building’s chimney, causing a mass evacuation and leading to dozens being displaced.
Karin Andreatta says her 90-year-old mother was one of the displaced, but since the fire she says they’ve been left in the dark on how damaged her things are and when she’ll be able to retrieve them.
“The communication has been non-existent,” Andreatta said. “They said all our communication is gonna be through email, and you’ll get updated… never, not a single email.”
Andreatta says her mother has valuables and family heirlooms going back 60 years. She says her mother is also worried she won’t be able to get her items if they’ve been damaged.
“She’s spiraling,” Andreatta said. “I’ve been trying to keep her from thinking the worst.”
She says they were told to make a list of essential items, but even her mother’s life-dependent medication would take five days.
By then, she says her mother had already taken matters into her own hands — calling a pharmacy for emergency medication costing over $1,000.
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“Here’s a 90-year-old woman calling the pharmacy and saying, ‘I can’t get my medication. There’s been a fire. What can I do?’” Andreatta said. “We had no nurses calling, no care, no nothing.”
And the expenses don’t stop there.
“She paid, of course, her whole month’s worth of rent,” Andreatta said. “They have not talked about [whether] she’s going to get half of this money. That’s well over $3,000.”
We reached out to The Blake about some of these concerns, and President of QSL Management Leland Rice sent us the following statement:
A fire in a senior living community is one of the hardest things a resident, a family, or a care team can go through. Our hearts are with every resident and family affected, and we understand the urgency families feel about their loved ones’ belongings and their next home. Out of respect for our residents’ privacy, we will not discuss any individual resident’s circumstances publicly. What we can share is what our team has been doing since the moment lightning struck on Sunday night, August 16.
That night, our team and first responders safely evacuated all 122 residents, with no injuries. Company leaders drove through the night to be on-site by early Monday morning and have not left since. In less than seven days, we have contacted every resident and family and relocated or accounted for every one of our 122 residents. Many have been relocated to our sister communities or to other local senior living communities, depending on their preference, together with their medications, records, and care plans.
From the first hours, medications and medical necessities have been our highest priority. For safety reasons, access to the damaged portions of the building has been restricted, and access limited to essential items only—medications, medical equipment, and identification. Our team has worked daily under those rules to retrieve essentials for residents throughout the week. We ask that any resident or family with an urgent need to call our Family Information Line at (904) 257-8873, day or night, so we can act on it immediately.
This weekend we finalized a safe, structured retrieval process that begins this week: an individual appointment for every family, a professional inventory and moving team, and video walkthroughs so families can see, select, and receive their belongings. We will share full details directly with residents and families. At the same time, we are completing repairs to fire-safety systems and working with regulatory and life-safety officials to reopen the unaffected portion of the community as soon as it is safe.
We are grateful to the first responders, to our team members, and to the residents and families who have shown extraordinary grace this week. We will not stop until every resident is settled, every belonging is accounted for, and every family has the answers they need.
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