Fire at Crozer-Chester Medical Center prompts patient evacuations
A small flood resulted in a fire, but it was contained and no injuries were reported, Crozer Health CEO Tony Esposito said.
An electrical fire and interior flooding at Crozer-Chester Medical Center triggered patient evacuations late Thursday night, with a large response of ambulances and other emergency vehicles arriving at the facility in Upland Borough, Delaware County.
“We experienced a small flood that resulted in a fire, but there is no longer an active fire,” Crozer Health CEO Tony Esposito said in an emailed statement Thursday night. “Critical care patients were evacuated from the facility to safe areas and we have been working with the county [to] ensure their safety. No injuries have been reported.”
Messages asking Crozer for updates on the affected hospital floors went unreturned Friday.
The combination of the two led to a “smoke charged building on many floors” and left some without power, according to the Delaware County Department of Emergency Services, whose staff and volunteers helped transport patients.
According to the agency, 38 patients were taken to nearby hospitals in Delaware, Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Chester counties.
Patients continued to be removed from the 302-bed hospital well after midnight but most firefighters had left. Esposito did not say where evacuated patients were taken. Crozer Health also owns Taylor Hospital, less than four miles away in Ridley Park. The two hospitals treat about 500 patients a day.
Helicopter video from 6abc showed firefighters gathered at what appeared to be a utility building with smoke emanating from an entrance and possibly from roof vents.
The video also showed a long line of ambulances and other emergency vehicles wrapping around part of the perimeter of the hospital complex.
About 11:15 p.m. the fire was reported to be under control. Venting was underway with some hospital windows open.
The evacuation is the latest in a string of incidents that has brought the hospital under the microscope.
Pennsylvania’s attorney general in October made the unprecedented move of petitioning a Delaware County court to give the state control of the health system after years of financial and leadership turmoil. Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., Crozer’s for-profit owner, is fighting the move.
Since being acquired by Prospect in 2016, two of Crozer’s four hospitals have closed, and the system has endured numerous rounds of layoffs and service disruptions.
The emergency departments at Crozer-Chester and Taylor were abruptly closed for three hours in early December after a technical problem affecting imaging services.
The attorney general moved to take over the hospital after Prospect threatened to shut down key services lines, including maternity services and the county’s only trauma unit. The next closest trauma units are in Philadelphia and Delaware.
State hospital inspectors get called to Crozer facilities for safety problems and complaints almost twice as often as to other area hospitals.
In 2024, Taylor Hospital received one of the state health department’s most serious warnings after finding that a patient with mental health issues had been able to leave the hospital unnoticed because staff hadn’t monitored her closely enough.
The Crozer hospitals have also been cited for broken cardiac care equipment, inadequate monitoring of cardiac patients, and not completing proper discharge forms for behavioral health patients.
Staff photographer Elizabeth Robertson and staff writer Sarah Gantz contributed to this article.