Fire and Evacuation of Children's Hospital, Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg

March 5/6, 2013 just before midnight will go down in history at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg when a fire deliberately set in the construction site adjacent to Children's Hospital resulted in dense black smoke being drawn into the in-patient tower through the ventilation system. Flames were visible outside patient windows and patient rooms became heated from the fire.

Staff had minutes to prepare all 121 patients for evacuation. We went from normal operations to complete evacuation in 15 minutes. Through a coordinated effort, following the HICS model, all patients, families and staff were evacuated successfully within 1 hour.

This webinar will review the sequence of events, show photographs from the fire and the damage it caused, and how we marshalled and managed the patients, families and staff for 12 hours until the hospital could be reoccupied.

Two nurses involved in the evacuation; one from NICU and one from acute medicine will tell their stories, as well as a parent who was there and helped evacuate her daughter down 5 flights of stairs to a cold snowy sidewalk in March. The supervisor who acted as Incident Commander until help arrived will speak about the role she played. We will also talk about how patients, families and staff were supported after this traumatic event and lessons learned from the experience. Please join us as we share our lessons learned and analysis of what went well and what we would do differently if ever faced with a similar circumstance.

Presenters:

Susan Fogg, RN MN, Program Director Child Health WRHA & Director of Patient Services Children's Hospital, HSC Winnipeg

Lorraine Friesen, RN Supervisor Children's & Women's Hospitals

Sandra Lang-Donald, RN Supervisor HSC (adult)

Kim Wiley, RN NICU

Cathy Penner, RN NICU

Kathryn (Kate) Fenske, RN CH5

Amy Millette, parent

Leslie Galloway, RN, MSc, Quality Officer Child Health Program