13 Patients Evacuated in Fire at Cedars-Sinai

A smoky mattress fire Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center forced 13 patients to evacuate a mental health wing at the hospital, authorities said.

Firefighters broke the third floor window of a patient’s room and tossed the smoldering mattress outside, said hospital spokesman Ron Wise.

“It produced a lot of smoke, but there was no fire damage,” Wise said. The fire was quickly extinguished and the 13 patients in the hospital’s East Tower mental health facility were eating breakfast within an hour, he said. Two dozen firefighters were dispatched to the hospital at 7:29 a.m. Heavy smoke was seen coming from the third floor of the tower, said Jim Wells, spokesman for the Fire Department. The fire was extinguished at 7:48 a.m., Wells said, and the cause was not immediately known.