Massachusetts General Hospital clinic in Waltham evacuated because of car fire
WALTHAM - One elderly patient saw the burning car that put the brakes on hundreds of medical appointments.
"It was hazy. I thought it was haze from the rain," he said. "We walked around the corner and there was the car, coming out from under the hood, very thick smoke."
Patients and staff huddled in blankets filed out of Massachusetts General Brigham Waltham Hospital after a mid-morning fire set off alarms Monday, forcing a mass evacuation.
"Arriving companies found a car fire well-involved in the lower level," said Waltham Fire Chief Andrew Mullin. "It created considerable smoke in the parking garage."
It sent fumes from the basement where it happened, through the ventilation system in what's known as the Green Building, where appointments and even surgeries were happening.
"I was trying to get my wrist x-rayed because I was snowboarding and I fell," said Summer Zachary.
Another patient, Jeff Slavin, was getting a plasma injection in his knee.
"The plasma was ready, doctor was about to come in, nope we all have to evacuate," he said.
A patient who was in surgery was rushed to another hospital. Another left to be treated for smoke inhalation. Two others were transported as a precaution.
"You have a lot of compromised patients," said Chief Mullin.
He said elevated readings of carbon monoxide had the hospital staff jumping into evacuation procedures they've practiced many times during fire drills.
Cardiac stenographer Elizabeth Marquis said the training helped.
"We just came down the stairs, evacuated, got all the patients out," she said.
By afternoon, patients and staff were able to resume business in the hospital. Some appointments had to be rescheduled.
The fire was later ruled an accident. Investigators said it started in the car's engine compartment.
