Rescuers evacuated 33 people from the Bridgewater Nursing Home yesterday after smoke from a fire caused extensive damage to the building, according to the Bridgewater Fire Department.
The fire, which started outside of the building about 4:30 p.m., moved into the basement and produced enough smoke to force out residents, officials said. No serious injuries were reported.
"It was a matter of the building being uninhabitable," said Bridgewater Fire Chief George Rogers. "The building was pressurized with smoke; we didn't have a choice."
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Rogers said the evacuation of the building on Pleasant Street demanded extra effort, mostly because many of the residents were either bed-ridden or in wheelchairs.
"We had to compartmentalize the patients," Rogers said. "More than half were nonambulatory, so we had to be very delicate about moving them."
The residents were moved to six different area hospitals, including Brockton Hospital, the Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, and Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, where they will remain until the home is reopened.
The nursing home is expected to be closed for at least a few days - the earliest slated reopening would be Tuesday - while town officials and health inspectors conduct 24-hour air quality tests, Rogers said.
About 13 neighboring institutions and municipalities, including Bridgewater State College and Duxbury, assisted in the evacuation, officials said.
