Brief fire at Vancouver medical building clears floor of patients, employees

The Vancouver Fire Department responded to what was likely an electrical fire at PeaceHealth Southwest’s Memorial Campus on Tuesday morning, but hospital staff already had it extinguished.

Fire engines were dispatched to the hospital at 7:48 a.m., said Vancouver firefighter and paramedic Pete Adams. In all, 20 firefighters responded to the call, Adams said.

PeaceHealth said in a prepared statement that a small fire broke out in a supply room on the second floor of its Memorial Campus at 100 E. 33rd St. The building houses the urgent care clinic on the first floor and behavioral health services on the second, the statement said.

Hospital staff used fire extinguishers to stop the fire from spreading before responders arrived, Adams said. The official response took about five minutes, he said, but firefighters remained on scene for about two hours to help ventilate the building.

No patients or employees were harmed by the fire, the hospital said. Ten patients were relocated to the first floor and will stay there as the smell of smoke is mitigated. They were escorted through an interior corridor and did not have to go outside into the cold.

Urgent care and behavioral health services have not been interrupted.

“The cause of the fire, likely electrical, will be determined and addressed upon completion of a thorough investigation,” the hospital said.