Fire in room at UPMC Susquehanna injures 2 nurses and 1 patient
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A female patient was seriously burned and two members of the nursing staff who came to her rescue suffered minor injuries Tuesday afternoon when a fire broke out in the patient's room at the UPMC Susquehanna Williamsport Regional Medical Center, city fire officials said.
Investigators were expected to return to the scene at 700 High St. this morning to try to determine what caused the fire that broke out in a room on the sixth floor in the hospital's east wing on the Rural Avenue side of the complex. City police will assist with the investigation.
Nursing staff outside the woman's room activated the fire alarms after seeing smoke coming from the room about 3:40 p.m., Assistant Fire Chief Mark Killian said.
"The fire involved a chair (that the patient was sitting in). Two staff members first attempted to put the fire out with sheets, and then grabbed a portable extinguisher, which was used to successfully put out the fire," Killian said.
The patient was quickly removed from the room and then taken to the hospital's intensive care unit, Killian said hospital staff told him. Plans were being made to have the woman flown to the burn unit at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown.
"She suffered significant burns over a majority of her body," Killian said he was told.
The patient's identity was not released nor were the names of the two nursing staff members who were treated a the hospital for minor burns to their hands.
When firefighters arrived on the scene and climbed a stairwell to the sixth floor, they found "a considerable smoke condition, but the fire was out," Killian said.
Firefighters used exhaust fans to clear smoke from the room and hallway.
At this point, there appeared to be nothing suspicious about the fire, which was extinguished in a matter of minutes, Killian said, adding that the fire involved "bedding material and a blanket."
The entire wing where the fire occurred was quickly evacuated, with patients placed in other rooms in another wing, Killian said.
A set of "fire doors" to the involved wing were shut, preventing smoke from spreading throughout the floor, he said. There was no reason to evacuate any area except the one wing, he added.
Efforts to reach a hospital spokesman late Tuesday afternoon were unsuccessful.
However, on its Facebook page, the hospital acknowledged the fire, saying it resulted in "wounding a patient and two employees." The brief statement also confirmed information Killian provided.