Fire Alarm in hospital

[clarabel82]

I was having an operation under local anaesthetic today and the routine fire alarm sounded while I was in theatre. The nurse assured me it was ok and it happens every Wednesday, but it got me thinking. What would happen if there was a real fire alarm while someone is having open heart surgery or something? Would the surgeons have to try and patch up as quickly as possible and get out?

[rich1982]

No unless the fire was in the operation room, The hospitals and areas like them are fire safe via sealing doors and well insulated wall/ceilings which would give a min off 6 hours protection from yourself and the fire

[clarabel82]

Ohh I wondered if it would be something like that. We've got a fireproof corridor for disabled customers downstairs at work but it will only hold off fire for about 10 minutes longer than normal corridors.

[gazzawazza]

For fire protection, certain buildings are built in "compartments." This means they have rooms or groups of rooms which are designed to prevent fire spread into the next compartment for a certain period of time.

An example would be a home for elderly persons which have (if my memory serves me well) one hour rated compartments. The idea is that should there be a fire then the staff (initially) and then the fire service would move people from the affected part into the next safe compartment. This is to prevent having to evacuate a whole building when there is only a small fire in one room, a difficult task I can assure you, especially when you throw in bedridden and/or confused patients.

The firefighters then deal with the fire and only move residents if and when necessary.

Hospitals will be built to similar (or better) designs probably incorporating positive pressure areas (to prevent the ingress of smoke in the event of a fire) and would only abandon an operation if absolutely necessary. Don't forget that hospitals are no-smoking zones and electrical equipment is checked regularly to prevent accidental fires so hopefully fires should be few and far between.

[stanleyman]

Hospitals are different to most other buildings and you would only be evacuated under instructions from a hospital fire warden operating a staged evacuation. You might still have to be stitched up PDQ if it was close though!