- Author
- Bryan, J. L. | DiNenno, P. J.
- Title
- Examination and Analysis of the Dynamics of the Human Behavior in the Fire Incident at the Southern Maryland Hospital Center on January 2, 1979.
- Coporate
- Maryland Univ., College Park
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NBS GCR 80-232, February 28, 1979, 33 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- GRANT-79014
- Keywords
- fire departments | fire extinguishers | fire investigations | hospitals | nursing staff | smoke | smoke detectors
- Abstract
- The fire incident at the Southern Maryland Hospital Center on January 2, 1979 was detected by a patient at approximately 0001 hours. The male patient in the psychiatric care unit on the fourth floor, west wing, reported to a nurse at the nurses station that there was an odor of smoke in the south corridor outside the closed door of vacant patient room 414. The nurse immediately initiated the facility fire emergency procedures with a phone call to the facility telephone operator. The telephone operator alerted the facility with a verbal "Code Red" an anouncement over the public address system and phoned the Prince George's County Fire Communications Center on the "911" emergency number. The fire in a fiber glass waste container was extinguished by a male psychiatric patient using a 10 pound, listed all purpose dry chemical extinguisher, rated 5A, 60B, C. The smoke propagation was heavy in room 414, and moderate in the south corridor of the fourth floor, west wing. The smoke was confined to the east wing area by the smoke barrier doors. The smoke detector system in the psychiatric care unit, including room 414, activated immediately following extinguishment. The seventeen patients in the psychiatric care unit were all ambulatory and were evacuated to the fourth floor, east wing, following extinguishment for the duration of the night. The five- and two-story building of fire resistive construction was approximately thirteen months old. At the time of the fire incident, there were 17 patients in the 25 bed capacity psychiatric unit.