Friday, February 13, 2015

PROPANE TANK EXPLODES IN WESTON, FLORIDA, CAUSING MASSIVE FIRE AND EVACUATION OF HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE FROM CLEVELAND CLINIC








FEBRUARY 13, 2015

WESTON, FLORIDA

The Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Fla., near Miami, was evacuated Friday afternoon after witnesses reported hearing an explosion inside one of the buildings on the hospital campus.

Hundreds of employees and patients were evacuated Friday after a propane tank exploded causing a massive fire, CBS News Miami reported.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue crews were sent to the hospital grounds, where a fire was quickly extinguished from the roof of the new cancer and neurology center still under construction. The Broward County (Fla.) Sun Sentinel reported.

No one was injured in the blaze, which started around 12:30 p.m. on the rooftop between the hospital and the Egil and Pauline Braathen Facility, according to CBS News Miami. 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 Sun Sentinel reported. The evacuation lasted for about an hour, hospital officials said.

Firefighters were able to keep the fire contained to the rooftop and put it out in about 25 minutes, Broward County Sheriff's Fire Rescue told CBS News Miami. After an hour, normal operations resumed in the outpatient clinic, according to clinic officials who also said the fire was construction-related.

Construction crews had been using a 100-pound propane tank to do work. Sometime while the workers were on break for lunch, the tank exploded, Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue told CBS News Miami.

"We got the call just after 12:30 p.m., and the fire was out in 20 minutes," Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesperson Mike Jachles told the Sun Sentinel. "Obviously, any time you have a large number of people and a healthcare facility, you need to deploy an adequate number of units.''

Jachles could not confirm the cause of the fire and explosion to The Sun Sentinel, but said the sheriff's office was investigating. He said firefighters felt the blast as they arrived and a plume of black smoke was visible from nearby Interstate 75.

"We'll be checking to see if there were propane tanks being used in the construction," Jachles said.

Leo Perri told The Sun Sentinel he 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.

"It was scary. The fire was like a tornado," Perri told The Sun Sentinel as he spun his finger in circles.

Brandon Hull, an EEG technologist, told The Sun Sentinel he 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 told The Sun Sentinel.