EAST HAVEN, Conn. — Editor's note: Video above originally aired on August 31.
The owner of Caroline Manor, an assisted living facility in East Haven, has been arrested after police said code violations were not corrected after an initial inspection in August.
The re-inspection timeline was moved up after two employees overdosed at the facility last week.
Timothy Conrow, 52, was charged with violation of fire safety code after an inspection on August 26 revealed multiple violations, police said.
According to officials, the initial inspection revealed that the facility lacked "necessary fire safety and occupancy safety measures", including required exits that were removed. Officials said the violations were deemed serious enough to require voluntary relocation of some of the occupants.
"Since no corrective action was taken since the initial inspection, coupled with the recent events (employee overdose incident on 9/22/2021) required expedited action by the housing court,” Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli said.
The overdose incident happened in the afternoon when a visiting nurse at the facility found the employees while checking on patients.
Officers at the scene found one male employee suffering from an apparent overdose on a lower level of the facility, and a female employee who suffered an overdose on the main floor of the building.
Both employees were taken to Yale New Haven Hospital for treatment. Their condition remains unknown at this time.
Police determined Fentanyl was the cause of the overdoses. The narcotics were left out and in plain view and the department's Investigative Services Division seized them, East Haven police Captain Joseph M. Murgo said.
Marcarelli went on to say that since some of the residents inside the facility required assistance, self-evacuating in the event of an emergency would be difficult.
"We discovered that exits were deliberately removed without going through the approval process," Marcarelli said.
Due to the overdose incident, Fire Marshal Charles Miller requested that the timeline for re-inspection be moved up for safety reasons and another inspection was held on September 23.
During the inspection, officials found that none of the 19 violations discovered during the August inspection had been corrected. Six residents were relocated to other facilities as a result.
Conroy was released on a $20,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court on November 23.
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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