It was an all-hands-on-deck situation at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland late Thursday, as a burst water main and fire made for a critical situation on the fourth floor of the hospital.
Crozer Health failed to respond to multiple requests for comment and did not provide any information on social media or through other channels Friday.
Messages left for Upland officials were also not returned and employees approached on the campus at 1 Medical Center Blvd. Friday morning declined to comment.
What was known could only be pieced together from fire radio traffic beginning shortly after 8:40 p.m. Thursday and from an account posted Friday on the Eddystone Fire Company's Facebook page.
According to those two sources:
Numerous units responded to the facility, where a chief on scene soon reported that there was a fire in the electrical room in the loading dock along Upland Avenue.
Personnel were working on darkening the fire with a dry chemical until it was clear that power was secured. Others were tasked with entering the main part of the hospital to determine if anything hazardous was getting in via the air flow system.
A PECO crew was on scene shortly after 9 p.m.
Eddystone indicated Engines 12, 12-1, and Ambulance 12 responded under the command of Fire Chief Allen Reeves III.
Engine 12 crew were placed into service by incident command into the rear of the fire building to assist maintenance crews on securing a busted 3-inch water main.
It was reported that a maintenance man went into a flooded area and that a rapid intervention team fire crew was monitoring him, ready to step in to take life-saving action if needed.
The Eddystone crew, under the command of Deputy Chief Richard Myers, was directed to assist in evacuating the intensive care unit, surgical ICU, and neuro-ICU units on fourth floor.
At 9:10 p.m., it was reported that the room on fire controls the intensive care unit on the fourth floor and that the patients in the ICU were being moved out.
Eddystone reported the fourth floor was charged with smoke and was suffering partial power failures.
Crews coordinated with ICU charge nurses in getting emergency medical services units to patient rooms for packaging and transfer to other areas of the hospital, as well as to an area for transfers to other locations by helicopter or ambulance.
Nearly all of the ambulances in the county were in service for getting patients out. There were preparations for flights, if needed.
At 10 p.m., it was reported that the fourth floor was evacuated. Labor and Delivery also moved all the newborns and their parents with the nurses to a different area.
Fans were deployed and successfully cleared smoke from the hallways and patient units on the fourth floor. The big fan of Milmont Fire Company was set up to pull hazardous air out of the emergency department.
“We experienced a small flood that resulted in a fire, but there is no longer an active fire,” Crozer Health CEO Tony Esposito said in a statement shortly after 10:30 p.m. “Critical care patients were evacuated from the facility to safe areas and we have been working with the county to ensure their safety. No injuries have been reported.”
Numerous work trucks were parked outside of the area where the fire had been Friday morning, apparently still dealing with cleanup operations. Windows in that area were covered up and there were several industrial fans piled on the ground outside.
Hospital beds were in the emergency department lobby and one employee indicated that entrance was closed.
It was unknown Friday exactly how many personnel were involved in the incident, or when ICU patients would be able to return to either CCMC or the ICU unit on the fourth floor.
Crozer Health was mum Friday, however, Patrick O'Connell, regional EMS director for Delaware County put the major incident in perspective for CBS 3:
“It was an all-hands-on-deck effort at Crozier-Chester Medical Center as emergency responders were in a race against time to get staff and patients out of harm's way.”
“Certainly in the 40-plus years I've been doing this, this was certainly in the one of the top five of incidents.”
He added that the total number of patients evacuated was 38.