The Cleveland Clinic was evacuated Friday afternoon after witnesses reported hearing an explosion inside one of the buildings on the hospital campus.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue crews were sent to the hospital grounds, at 2950 Cleveland Clinic Blvd., where a fire was quickly extinguished from the roof of the new cancer and neurology center still under construction.
The fire caused the evacuation of the Cleveland Clinic, the hospital next to it and the construction site of the $90 million, 143,000-square-foot Egil and Pauline Braathen Center that had been set to open later this month. The evacuation lasted for about an hour, hospital officials said.
There were no injuries, according to Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesperson Mike Jachles.
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“We got the call just after 12:30 p.m., and the fire was out in 20 minutes,” he said. “Obviously, any time you have a large number of people and a health care facility, you need to deploy an adequate number of units.”
The Broward Sheriff Fire Marshal’s Bureau and the Division of State Fire Marshal are investigating the cause of the fire. Preliminary evidence shows it was most likely accidental and possibly caused by torches being used to apply roofing materials, Jachles said.
He said as firefighters arrived, they felt an “intense explosion” believed to be from a 100-pound propane tank on the roof. A plume of black smoke was visible from nearby Interstate 75.
Hospital staff and construction workers felt and heard the explosion as well.
Leo Perri was working on the Braathen Center’s paging system on the first floor when he heard the fire alarm. Like most of the construction workers, he ignored it — they had been testing the fire alarms all week. Then, one of the general contractors yelled, “Everybody get out of the building!”
According to Perri, roofers had been applying hot tar to the roof to waterproof it. The tar was heated from a 100-pound propane tank.
The roofers were on their lunch break when the fire broke out.
“It was scary. The fire was like a tornado,” Perri said as he spun his finger in circles.
Brandon Hull, an EEG technologist, had just finished with a patient when he heard “code red,” meaning fire in the building. He was on the fourth floor of the hospital, adjacent to the Braathen Center, and he heard the explosion and felt it shake the hospital. Once he heard the order to evacuate, he went downstairs and walked out the front door.
“It was a pretty calm scene for what was happening,” Hull said.
All construction workers and hospital personnel were accounted for, and patients and staff were back in the clinic and hospital later the same day.
The Braathen Center was going to have its grand opening on Feb. 22, an event that was to include appearances by former Miami Dolphins Twan Russell and O.J. McDuffie, as well as 2014 Indianapolis 500 champ Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Hospital officials said they were unsure whether the opening would have to be delayed.
Construction of the center got underway after Cleveland Clinic received a $30 million donation — the largest in its history — from Pauline Braathen, a patient for more than a decade. She has a home in Boca Raton, though her usual residence is aboard The World, a 165-apartment, globe-trotting cruise ship.
Braathen was married to the late Egil Braathen, a Norwegian real estate developer, who was also a patient at the complex.
Date: February 13, 2015