A fire that started in a penthouse mechanical room on the fourth floor of Cambridge Memorial Hospital's B Wing on Tuesday afternoon is estimated to have caused $1 million in damage, according to the Cambridge Fire Department.
The fire, while small, sent smoke billowing down an elevator shaft in the tower, three floors of which are vacant for renovations.
The smoke infiltrated other wings of the hospital, forcing a Code Green evacuation of the B Wing and putting staff and volunteers on standby for the possibility of a full evacuation, president and CEO Patrick Gaskin said Tuesday.
Fire response also left water damage in B Wing, affecting 10 beds. Those patients were quickly relocated.
Although staff were given the all clear to return evacuated patients to the hospital around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and resume accepting patients, hospital staff was forced to cancel surgeries and endoscopies scheduled for yesterday and today.
Hospital spokesperson Stephan Beckhoff said four endoscopies were cancelled yesterday and 26 procedures were cancelled today.
Eight surgeries were cancelled yesterday due to the fire and 26 were cancelled today.
"The good news is that urgent and emergency cases moved forward today for both endoscopy and surgery," he said in an email to CambridgeToday.
Both surgeries and endoscopies will fully resume October 5.
That decision came after staff cleaned and assessed the post-anaesthetic care unit and OR areas affected by the smoke.
Other impacted areas such as Diagnostic Imaging and our Laboratory are fully functioning and caught up, he added.
"The concern was to ensure the environment was completely safe for surgery," Beckhoff wrote in a follow up email.
"After the initial terminal clean, Cambridge Fire Department came in to do some air quality testing. Their meters did not register anything toxic. The hospital also changed the air filters to these areas and increasing fresh air flow. We will be monitoring air quality to these areas over the short term also."
Anyone with an appointment is advised to go to the hospital.
CFD Captain John Percy said the exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but said it was likely due to construction happening in B wing.
