A nursing home in Bristol Township, where three people died in a natural gas explosion last month, had accumulated more safety violations and federal fines than any other long-term care facility in the Philadelphia region.
The 174-bed facility, which changed owners three weeks before the December 23 tragedy, was hit with $418,000 in federal fines between 2023 and 2025 — the highest penalty total among nursing homes in Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Philadelphia counties, according to inspection records.
The Bristol Health & Rehab Center, formerly known as Silver Lake Healthcare Center, received more than 70 health and fire safety citations from federal regulators over the past three years. While the exact cause of the deadly explosion remains under investigation, the facility’s troubled safety record raises questions about oversight in the nursing home industry.
In the years before the explosion, state regulators repeatedly cited the facility for fire safety deficiencies. During a January 2023 inspection, officials found the nursing home had failed to properly maintain required exit signage and fire sprinkler systems. Inspectors also noted that corridor doors intended to slow the spread of smoke were not properly maintained on two floors, and that required smoke barrier partitions were missing.
A follow-up inspection conducted in October 2025 — just two months before the fatal explosion — showed that while issues had been corrected, there were also some that remained unresolved. Inspectors again found that required smoke barrier partitions were absent on two of the building’s three floors. The inspection also identified failures involving the maintenance of portable fire extinguishers on one floor, as well as a room used to store oxygen cylinders that was not secured with smoke-tight doors.
The October inspection report notes that the facility had requested a Fire Safety Evaluation System, which, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “may be applicable when a facility has multiple deficiencies that may be cost-prohibitive or infeasible to correct.”
Beyond the fire safety issues, inspectors also flagged serious failures involving resident care and supervision. According to a September 2024 inspection report, one resident overdosed on illegal narcotics four times over a seven-month period, spanning from December 2023 through July 2024.
In one case, the resident told investigators they had purchased an unidentified narcotic from another resident inside the facility. In another incident, the resident obtained fentanyl, triggering an overdose that required treatment at an emergency department. Despite a documented “history of heroin and fentanyl abuse,” inspectors found “no documented evidence that consistent psychiatric or psychological counseling was provided to address the resident’s addiction.”
The facility was also cited for inadequate supervision of a resident diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. An October 2024 inspection report states the resident left the building around 11:30 p.m., and staff did not realize the individual was missing until police contacted the facility several hours later.
The Bristol facility’s penalties represent a significant portion of the $5.3 million in fines issued to nursing homes across the region since 2023. Nearly half of the region’s nursing homes received fines during this period, with six-figure penalties becoming increasingly common. More than 22% of the 85 facilities that were fined had penalties exceeding $100,000.
While the Bristol facility had extensive health violations, it received relatively few fire safety citations compared to some other regional nursing homes. One facility in Southeastern Pennsylvania accumulated 60 fire-safety citations during the same three-year period.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health conducts nursing home inspections on behalf of the federal government every 15 months, said Neil Ruhland, a department spokesman. Facilities that repeatedly fail to comply with safety standards can face escalating penalties, including fines and, in rare cases, termination from Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The nursing home changed ownership in early December 2025, just three weeks before the fatal explosion. The new owners renamed the facility from Silver Lake Healthcare Center to Bristol Health & Rehab Center.
The facility’s current ownership, Saber Healthcare Group, issued a statement saying:
“Yesterday, a devastating explosion occurred at Bristol Health and Rehab Center in Bristol, Pennsylvania… our team continues to work with emergency response personnel, firefighters, and state and local officials to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff, residents, and the larger community.” Saber added that it had become affiliated with the center just 24 days before the tragedy and was working to improve prior issues in the wake of the blast.
Silver Lake Healthcare Center did not respond to requests for comment about the facility’s violation history or the circumstances leading to the ownership change.
Federal and state investigators are continuing to examine the circumstances surrounding the blast, which occurred after staff reported a gas odor at the facility earlier that day.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, working alongside state and local police and fire officials in Bucks County. Investigators are reviewing utility infrastructure at the site, including natural gas service lines, and are conducting interviews and evidence testing as part of the ongoing probe. Local utility provider PECO has said it is cooperating with investigators and has deferred questions about the cause to federal authorities.
State officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, have said there are still unanswered questions about how the explosion occurred. The incident has drawn renewed attention from local officials and residents to the oversight of long-term care facilities in Bucks County, particularly in cases involving older buildings, recent ownership changes, and repeated safety violations.
Investigators are also reviewing other recent explosion incidents in the region. A separate explosion on New Year’s Day in Northeast Philadelphia injured four people and destroyed a twin home.
