By Jim Fedele. CBET
We go through training annually on how to respond during a fire. I believe most hospital-based biomeds are required to know this information. But, I have never been trained or experienced what to do after a fire occurs. I, unfortunately, experienced this firsthand at one of our small rural hospitals. Given the lack of information on this subject I felt it would be good information to share with readers.
For me, it all started when I was out with friends and one of them got an alert from Facebook that there was a fire at one of our hospitals. I immediately checked my email and text messages looking for a disaster announcement. To my surprise, there was nothing sent. I assumed that it must have been minor. Then, 10 minutes later, I received an announcement that they were evacuating the hospital because of smoke and smell. The staff did everything they were supposed to, even non-working staff who were local responded to the emergency to help. In a very short time, patients were relocated safely and the hospital was closed.
The next morning, I went to see the damage. The cause of the fire was determined to be a chemical reaction between spray on insulation and a coating in a utility tunnel. The utility tunnel housed steam pipes from the detached boiler building to the hospital. The boiler room and tunnel were part of a refreshing project to repair some aging infrastructure. The fire was quickly contained, and we thought extinguished. As I walked through the building it really didn’t look too bad. They had a disaster recovery team onsite assessing the damage. However, that evening when they were excavating the tunnel the fire re-ignited and filled the lab, emergency department and imaging departments with toxic smoke. This time it was much worse.
The next time I visited the hospital to assess the damage it required full hazmat PPE with PAPRs. The soot from the smoke was highly toxic and required full protection to tour the facility. After the tour, we were told that every piece of equipment in the affected zones would need to be cleaned inside and out. In my mind, I was wondering how we were going to accomplish such a feat. There were over 200 pieces of equipment directly impacted, from a CT scanner to patient monitors and everything in between. Also, there was extreme pressure to get the hospital opened as soon as possible. At this point, I stepped back from the situation and called any and everyone I thought might know what really needed to be done. Unfortunately, nobody I knew had ever experienced a hospital fire like ours. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do.
The next day, I visited the site again. There were many experts meeting and discussing realistic timelines and plans for cleanup. I was introduced to Paul from a company called ERS, he spoke to me about the service they provide. ERS was going to clean and assess every piece of electronic equipment. Their plan was to bag and relocate contaminated equipment to a designated decontamination location for cleaning. For the large mounted imaging and lab equipment they would clean it in place and then they would build a structure around it to protect it. They would then reinstall it once the area was clean and safe. Finally, they would coordinate the OEM certification after the area was ready. What a relief this was for me; I wasn’t comfortable having my team clean the hazardous soot from the equipment. Also, it would have required me to pull all my resources to do the job which would have left five other hospitals without our support.
I worked closely with Paul. I gave him an inventory list. His team did a physical inventory as well and started cleaning the equipment. Their plan worked well; we did have one snag as others not involved with the process started to schedule vendors in for certifications and Paul thought we wanted to do it ourselves. We had to scramble the last week to get vendors in to certify the equipment.
In the end, the tasks were completed to get the hospital ready. Every room affected by smoke was emptied. Contents were evaluated to be saved or discarded. Every ceiling tile was replaced, carpeting and porous flooring removed. Walls were cleaned, repainted and sealed. My team touched every piece of equipment outside of the affected departments to ensure it was in good shape and in working order. My team coordinated vendor certifications of all equipment that was cleaned by ERS. The duct work completely replaced, and every surface cleaned. This short paragraph doesn’t do justice to the amount of work that was needed to accomplish opening the hospital.
My hope is that you found this informative. I would also like to thank my team for coming together and getting the work done.
Jim Fedele, CBET, is the senior director of clinical engineering for UPMC. He manages six Susquehanna Health hospitals. He has 30 years of HTM experience and has worked for multiple service organizations. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of TechNation or MD Publishing.
