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Crime & Safety

MRI Unit Fire Causes Emergency Room Evacuation, Disaster Response

No one was injured in the Wednesday evening fire at the new St. Luke's Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township.

A fire that broke out in the MRI unit at the new forced the evacuation of its emergency room Wednesday evening and prompted a major emergency response as multiple fire departments and dozens of ambulances from at least half a dozen municipalities converged in response to a potential disaster.

No one was injured in the fire, which was first reported around 7:15 p.m., and it was fully contained to the unit, said Stephen Andrews, St. Luke's Network Director for Marketing and Public Relations, from the scene.

“The MRI tech, he was all over it. He saw something was wrong, and took all the right steps,” Andrews said.

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There was a patient in the unit just before the fire, but it was unclear if they were present when the fire broke out, he said.

Patients on the second and third floors of the hospital were moved to the far side of the building as a precaution, he said. How many were affected was not immediately clear.

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A few patients that were in the emergency room were transported to St. Luke's in Bethlehem, he added.

“The response was due to smoke on the first floor,” Andrews said. “It never made it past the first floor.”

How the fire started is not yet known, but no part of the hospital other than the MRI unit was damaged. Firemen were in the process of clearing the smoke and ventilating the first floor, he said around 8:45 p.m. from the hospital parking lot.

The hospital diverted incoming patients until about 11 p.m., when the emergency room was reopened radio reports indicated.

“This machine will be taken apart to see what happened,” Andrews said of the multimillion dollar unit.

Those who need MRI scans will be sent to other St. Luke's facilities until this unit is operational again, he added.

As for the dozens of emergency vehicles and hundreds of emergency personnel that responded, Andrews said that when a hospital is involved, disaster planning capable of dealing with worst-case scenarios “snaps into place.”

“Everything went according to plan,” Andrews said.

The hospital campus on Riverside Drive just off Freemansburg Avenue and Route 33, includes a cancer center, which opened on Sept. 12, an office facility, and the hospital, which opened on Nov. 7.

The $3 million MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging unit, is one of several state-of-the-art diagnostic tools at the newly opened hospital, , who praised the modern facility.

(Note: Article updated 12:03 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2011)

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