UCSD Medical Center Fire Forces Brief Evacuation

A two-alarm fire raced through a building under construction at UC San Diego Medical Center on Tuesday, forcing the brief evacuation of up to 1,000 employees and patients from an adjacent hospital wing, fire and hospital officials said.

Eleven people were treated for smoke inhalation, officials said.

Firefighters were called to UCSD Medical Center shortly after 11 a.m. when a blaze started in the hospital’s new southern wing, which is under construction, Fire Department Battalion Chief Russell Lougy said.

The blaze started when hot metal being used in welding on the roof dropped to the third floor and ignited a cardboard box and plastic construction materials, setting off the fire that shot through 10 floors, fire investigator Capt. Bob Landis said.

It took up to 100 firefighters a half-hour to contain the blaze and an hour to put it out, Lougy said. Although estimates varied, anywhere from several hundred to 1,000 employees, visitors and patients decided to evacuate the hospital, gathering at the intersection of Front and Arbor streets. They returned to the hospital by noon.

Hospital visitor Paul Chapman, 28, of La Mesa, said he and about a dozen family members were forced to leave his bedridden father behind during the evacuation.

“We opened the door to the stairs and we smelled smoke and went down to the entrance, and from there the Fire Department came in and cleared everyone out of the lobby,” Chapman said.

The fire caused an estimated $20,000 damage, Landis said. It should not delay completion of the new wing, which is expected by June.