A cardiac catheterization lab at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air suffered major damage Sunday afternoon after an electrical fire, according to fire investigators and hospital officials.
The lab is not expected to be fully operational for at least a month, hospital spokesperson Martha Mallonee said Monday.
The fire, reported at 1:07 p.m., caused an estimated $700,000 in damage, mostly to equipment, according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office. No injuries were reported and there was no structural damage to the building, investigators said.
The fire originated in a utility room used to house specialty equipment for the lab, which is on the ground floor of the four-story hospital building, according to the fire marshal's office. No medical procedure was in progress.
A sprinkler extinguished the fire before about 20 firefighters from Bel Air, Abingdon and Fallston volunteer fire companies arrived on the scene, the fire Marshal's Office said.
The hospital called a "modified Code Yellow" to allow the emergency management committee to open its command center and deal with safety communications, initial inspection and clean-up, Mallonee said.
The hospital was not evacuated, Mallonee said, as the fire was contained to one room.
"We are focused today [Monday] on reaching out to patients about the changes and returning to normal operations as soon as possible," Mallonee explained in an emailed statement."We are grateful to the local fire departments for their swift response and support."
"The focus over the next few days will be clean-up, shuffling the cardiac cath cases to different areas and an inspection by the insurance company," she said.
Patients who need the lab's services may be sent to other hospitals for the time being, Mallonee said Tuesday
"It really depends on the particular case and what is the best approach from both a high quality and patient safety perspective," she said. "We have options both within our two hospitals and with our partners at University of Maryland Medical Center or University of Maryland St. Joseph Hospital and there is no standard answer as each case is evaluated carefully."
"Our priority is to become fully operational as soon as possible, but we will not sacrifice safety for speed," she added.
According to the fire marshal's office, investigators have determined the fire was accidental, the result of an electrical failure within the power supply to the lab table.