Cassia was born on 2-3-11, and she survived her first fire barely after her 12 hour birthday. We were woken at 2:30am by a nurse who told me that there was a fire and we might have to evacuate. I waited with Cassia a few minutes, then she came back and told us we were moving.
We left our room to see a parade of new moms and babies being lead to the elevators. The nursery was full of smoke and there was about an inch of water on the floor. The Boise Fire Department was there, and one guys told us "if anyone doesn't have a name picked out, my name is Terry. And this is Roberto, if you want a sexier name". The Maternity Ward ran out of wheelchairs, and most the girls were being pushed in office chairs. We went down from the 8th floor to the 2nd (Labor and Delivery) where we were put in groups of 3 and waited for new rooms. I ended up on the 9th floor (went from 8013 to 9514, my rooms were almost on top of each other). I had to leave everything in my room, so no one could get a hold of me. The nurses did great though, especially Annette and Estelle who were my favorites. My OB/GYN came to see me the next day (Dr. Klomp, who is awesome) and he told me that all the OBs were hunting all over the hospital for their patients. Here is a news article on it:
Investigators: Cause of fire that forced Boise hospital to move maternity ward Friday unknown
- Idaho Statesman
Published: 02/04/11
Several dozen patients on the 8th floor maternity ward at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center had to be moved to a different floor after a fire early Friday morning. The fire is believed to have started in a trash bag in a storage room, but exactly what sparked it is still unknown, investigators said later in the day.
The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined, according to Boise Fire spokeswoman Lynn Hightower. St. Luke's spokeswoman Beth Toal said the 8th floor maternity ward is expected to reopen on Sunday, after it has been cleaned up.
No one was injured in the fire, which was put out quickly by sprinklers and a St. Luke's employee with an extinguisher, but the patients were moved because of smoke in the area, according to Boise fire reports.
Twenty-nine mothers and 18 newborn babies were moved to rooms on other floors, Toal said. The 8th floor is for mothers who have already delivered babies. Mothers who haven't yet delivered their babies are on the second floor.
Boise fire crews were sent to St. Luke's Downtown campus around 2:38 a.m. Friday. When crews arrived, hospital employees were in the process of moving patients to other floors.
"The hospital staff and patients were calm and helpful and the evacuation seemed to go as smooth and efficiently as possible," Boise Fire Battalion Chief Tom Pawek said.
Boise fire investigators are still trying to determine what caused the fire.
There was some smoke and water damage to the 8th floor Mother Baby Care Unit and hospital crews are in the process of cleaning that up, hospital officials said Friday morning.
Hospital officials say Friday's fire is totally unrelated to an incident Jan. 21 when a vacuum pump caught fire in a sub-basement of the medical center.
