11:24 PM CDT on Thursday, July 13, 2006
From Staff Reports
A patient wearing an oxygen mask lit a cigarette and ignited a fire Thursday that charred his room at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, fire officials said.
The man suffered significant burns and was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, said Kim Hollon, an executive vice president of the Methodist Health System.
The fire broke out about 7:45 p.m. on the hospital's 10th floor and forced 114 patients to move. No one besides the man was seriously hurt.
"He somehow got the strength to smoke a cigarette with a nonremovable [oxygen] mask," said Dallas Fire-Rescue Capt. Paul Martinez.
"I don't know how he did it, but he did it."
The automatic sprinkler in the room prevented the blaze from becoming a larger emergency, Capt. Martinez said.
A nurse quickly pulled the patient from his burning bed. Nearby machinery melted.
"The fire would have advanced to the hallway horizontally and then vertically. Instead of eight or nine alarms, it was just two alarms," Capt. Martinez said. "Everything worked like it was supposed to."
From Staff Reports
A patient wearing an oxygen mask lit a cigarette and ignited a fire Thursday that charred his room at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, fire officials said.
The man suffered significant burns and was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, said Kim Hollon, an executive vice president of the Methodist Health System.
The fire broke out about 7:45 p.m. on the hospital's 10th floor and forced 114 patients to move. No one besides the man was seriously hurt.
"He somehow got the strength to smoke a cigarette with a nonremovable [oxygen] mask," said Dallas Fire-Rescue Capt. Paul Martinez.
"I don't know how he did it, but he did it."
The automatic sprinkler in the room prevented the blaze from becoming a larger emergency, Capt. Martinez said.
A nurse quickly pulled the patient from his burning bed. Nearby machinery melted.
"The fire would have advanced to the hallway horizontally and then vertically. Instead of eight or nine alarms, it was just two alarms," Capt. Martinez said. "Everything worked like it was supposed to."
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