A gas leak prompted the precautionary emergency evacuation of 96 nursing home residents in Horse Cave Friday morning.

According to Jim Reid, administrator for Hart County Health Care, staff members discovered a leak at the 1505 S. Dixie St. facility around 8:10 a.m. and a decision was made to move the residents of the home to the parking lot for their safety.

Reid praised the quick response of Atmos Energy, in addition to emergency personnel from Cave City, Horse Cave and Hart County.

“We are very fortunate that this event wasn’t any more than it turned out to be” said Reid, whose staff was able to move its residents to shaded areas of the parking lot.

Reid attributed his staff’s organized response to dedicated hours of training and drills to prepare them for such an event.

“I think we need to give a big round of applause to the Emergency Management staff who really came through for our residents. Once they arrived on the scene we pretty much passed the torch as a matter of procedure to them for control of the scene and they did an outstanding job.” added Reid.

Additional tents were provided by the nearby Winn Funeral Home of Horse Cave, and by the emergency responders to assist in the comfort of the residents, as temperatures climbed steadily in the morning.

Among the first to arrive on the scene was Hart County Judge-Executive Terry Martin, whose mother is a resident of the facility.

“The facility and emergency personnel did a fantastic job of taking control of that situation” said Martin after the residents were allowed to return to the building.

“The emergency responders from Cave City and Horse Cave worked together and went out of their way to ensure that the residents of the facility were comfortable, in addition to checking the vital signs of the residents to ensure that nobody was suffering from any stress from being moved. The speed and efficiency with how this event was handled by Hart County Office of Emergency Management and its director Kerry McDaniel was particularly impressive. I also have to give a lot of credit to the staff of Hart County Health Care for going beyond the call of duty to make sure everyone was taken care of.”

McDaniel organized the evacuation, which had already begun by facility staff and utilized resources from the Cave City and Horse Cave police departments to maintain a perimeter while Cave City and Horse Cave firefighters, in addition to Hart County Ambulance, were assembled should an evacuation from the parking lot become a reality.

A loose fitting was discovered to be the cause of the gas discharge and was secured by Atmos Energy’s maintenance crews. Residents were able to return to the facility around 10 a.m. less than two hours after the evacuation.

Several individuals were moved to neighboring Caverna Memorial Hospital as a preemptive precautionary measure due to their individual health concerns, however no injuries were reported from the gas leak.

McDaniel also praised the ability of neighboring communities to respond quickly and effectively to the scene.

“We never like to see this kind of thing where we have to move people out of a hospital or nursing home, but for their safety a decision was made to move them to the parking lot until we could get word from the State Fire Marshall that it was safe to return them to the facility.” said McDaniel. “The members of the emergency response team worked together well, and in little time had stations set up to ensure that everyone was where they needed to be, and that all of the residents were comfortable. Cave City and Horse Cave’s Fire Departments really did a fine job of working together during this event.”