NORWICH – Fifty residents at the former Gilmour Nursing Facility were evacuated Saturday afternoon after a malfunctioning fire sprinkler caused water and electrical damage throughout the facility.

The home officially changed its name on Jan. 1 from the Pearl and Everett Gilmour Nursing Facility to the Norwich Rehabilitation and Nursing Center after coming under new ownership.

City of Norwich Emergency Management Director A. Wesley Jones said the fire department was alerted to an alarm after an automatic system at the center detected a fire sprinkler head above the third floor nursing station had burst at around 11 a.m. Saturday.

Jones said the facility’s staff had only moments before notified building maintenance that the sprinkler head was leaking.

Norwich Fire Chief Tracy Chawgo said firemen arrived on the scene and stopped the malfunctioning sprinkler. Jones estimated that “hundreds of gallons” of water escaped the sprinkler head “in about 10 minutes.”

“Water had gone all over the nursing station, all their electronics and computers at the station were covered in water and water traveled through to the second floor ceiling and destroyed the second floor’s nursing station and its electronics,” he said.

Chawgo said water also traveled through an electrical conduit on the third floor to the second, and disabled the home’s electrical and heating systems. Electricians would later have to replace all the second and third floor electrical breakers, reported Jones.

Jones said residents on the third floor were evacuated into the hallways for about two hours before staff moved all the home’s 78 residents into the building’s second and third floor dining areas, he said.

Norwich Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Director of Activities and Volunteers Danielle Giordano said resident care and safety was the most important factor in handling the incident. She added that at no time were residents evacuated outside.

Officials said heat and partial electricity was restored to the facility at around 1 p.m., but much of the building was still deemed unsafe for residents.