Hospital fire forces 40 patients to evacuate
Hospital Safety Connection, February 24, 2005
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A two-alarm fire yesterday forced 40 patients to evacuate from El Camino Hospital in San Jose, CA, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. An electrical fire in a supply closet may have started the blaze, officials say.
The hospital's chief engineer put out the flames with a fire extinguisher, but smoke poured out of the cabinet that contained patient care supplies.
``It got dark and the smoke got too thick,' Jeff Drozen, the hospital's chief engineer, told the News. ``We just kept seeing smoke coming through the door, and there were patients in the vicinity...so we started evacuating people.'
They moved the patients from the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of the west wing to the east wing of the hospital's main patient tower, and then down to lower floors of the six-story facility. There are smoke barriers between the two wings.
``The main point is the patients were not in danger,' El Camino Hospital spokeswoman Judy Twitchell told the News.
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