Polo Rehab & Health Care Center residents evacuated after Monday storm

POLO – Residents of the Polo Rehab & Health Care Center are comfortable in their temporary digs at Polo High School after being evacuated late Monday night from their rooms after one wing of their facility filled with smoke as a strong storm swept through town.

Late Tuesday afternoon, residents remained at the school with some watching a large video screen projected over the stage, located at the west end of the gym.

Scott McBride, the regional vice president of operations for Tutera Management, said officials were waiting for an update from ComEd.

“We’re still waiting for ComEd to give us an update as to power restoration,” McBride said. “That will determine our next steps. The residents are sheltering in the high school gym. They are happy and well fed.

“The city of Polo and the school have been phenomenal,” he said.

Late Monday evening, Polo Fire Chief Jim Ports said firefighters were responding to a transformer fire at 9:10 p.m. near the nursing home at 703 E. Buffalo St., when smoke was detected inside the facility.

“As we were here, the west wing started filling up with smoke,” Ports said. “That’s why we had to evacuate.”

At midnight, Ports said it appeared that the smoke was coming from a HVAC unit on the building’s roof.

Nineteen residents of the facility were moved to the gymnasium of the nearby Polo High School as the center’s staff worked on relocating them to other facilities.

Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle and Thomas Richter, the county’s emergency management director, were on scene as residents of the facility were being evacuated.

“The high school is the designated shelter in case of an emergency evacuation like this,” VanVickle said, adding that no one was injured during the incident.

Richter said six separate tornado warnings were issued across Ogle County earlier in the evening Monday.

Most of the warnings were issued when rotation was seen on radar, VanVickle said.

“Some were also prompted by witness rotation too,” Richter said.

Ports said fire departments from Dixon City, Milledgeville, Mt. Morris, Oregon, and Dixon Rural also responded to the scene with ambulances from Mt. Morris, Milledgeville, Oregon and Forreston assisting in evacuating the residents.

As ambulances moved residents from the center to the school, Polo Rehab staff, along with firefighters and police officers, wheeled empty beds and chairs out the main door of the center and one block north to the school’s main entrance at 100 S. Union Ave.

Some beds were too wide to fit through the main entrance doors and were brought into the gymnasium through the ag shop’s garage door, located on the other side of the school.

Beds and chairs were lined up on the north side of the basketball court as center staff attended to residents.