Six Injuries In NYC Hospital Fire
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NEW YORK (AP) – Six people suffered minor injuries and 13 patients were moved after a fire erupted in a seventh-floor doctor’s office of Mount Sinai Medical Center in upper Manhattan on Wednesday, authorities said.
“The flames were coming out the windows, but the fire was basically in the office,” fire department Assistant Chief Michael Weinlein said at a hospital news conference, where he was joined by hospital President and CEO Ken Davis.
“The nurses saw the smoke and they quickly transferred the patients to other units,” Mr. Davis said.
Mr. Davis said the 13 patients were on the eighth floor, which houses a neurosurgical intensive care unit. There were no injuries among them, but four medical staff members were treated for smoke inhalation.
Two firefighters also were hurt, but not seriously, the chief said.
The fire was reported shortly before 8 a.m. and went to a second alarm at 8:17 a.m. in one building of the large complex that stretches between Fifth and Madison avenues and 101st and 99th streets, said Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi.
The blaze in the 31-story Annenberg wing was brought under control at 9:32 a.m., said John Mulligan, another Fire Department spokesman.
The wing also houses the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and laboratories. Employees arriving to work and staff already in the building were ordered to the lobby.
The hospital resumed its normal schedule after the fire was contained, except for a few changes to the eighth floor’s operation room.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Mr. Mulligan said 106 firefighters responded to the scene.
Two fire truck ladders were propped up against the seventh floor windows of the Annenberg building, and dozens of fire trucks and other firefighting vehicles ringed the hospital, stalling traffic around the complex.
Firefighters also battled another fire Wednesday morning – the second day of frigid temperatures in the city – at a residential high-rise at 211 Central Park West. The fire broke out at 8:29 a.m., and was contained at 9:50 a.m., Mulligan said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
