Fire Causes Evacuation At Jackson Memorial Hospital
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A rooftop fire at Jackson Memorial Hospital caused staff and patients to temporarily evacuate the building.
Heavy, black smoke was reported on the building's exterior around 3 p.m. Saturday, where construction workers were working.
"They were telling us to get out," said Jamie Pattek, visiting her father at the hospital. "There was just a bunch of smoke, like a lot of smoke. A ton. And it was smoking on the 6th floor."
The building wasn't officially evacuated by the fire department. Officials said that in an abundance of caution and due to the fire alarms going off, people exited the building.
"We got word that the west wing area of the hospital had heavy black smoke from the rooftop," said Miami Fire Rescue's Lt. Ignatius Carroll. "When we arrived, we found that there was some roof workers on the top doing some work when a fire ignited. Now this fire was contained to the outside, but because of the look of what people saw, they had some concern for the patients on the inside."
Hospital staff initiated their protocol and moved certain patients to a more secure area.
"From the way it looked on the outside, the fire was pretty intense," Lt. Carroll added. "A lot of black smoke, but that also comes from a lot of the roofing materials, a lot of heavy, black smoke there. But once we were able to get up there and knock it down, it was put out pretty quickly."
No one was hurt and there was no structural damage to the building.