Emergency crews evacuated hundreds of patients from White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights after the area suffered a major power outage.
The outage was reported at around 11 p.m. on Monday at the hospital’s Specialty Care Center and resulted in a mass evacuation, including those on a ventilator, the Los Angeles Fire Department reported.
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Fire officials shared that the part of the hospital affected by the outage contains the NICU, OB-GYN, and Special Aid rehabilitation departments, according to fire officials.
In total, 241 patients were impacted by the outage, and most of them were transported to another building of the hospital.
However, officials shared that 28 patients were rushed to other hospitals in ambulances as they were in critical condition.
All patients are safe, officials said.
“Because of the fact that no elevators were working... firefighters had to work together in conjunction with doctors on site and provide that same level of care that you would have with a ventilator or with special equipment and then go down those flights of stairs,” Cody Weireter with the Los Angeles Fire Department shared.
During the outage, a patient was reportedly giving birth while another patient was rescued after being trapped inside a non-working elevator, according to KCAL News.
The department shared that firefighters were physically carrying patients downstairs because of the elevators.
It is not clear what caused the outage or when it will be back on. John G. Raffoul, president of Adventist Health White Memorial, said during a press conference that the hospital had an outage at 3 a.m. on Monday, which led the hospital to use three emergency generators.
Around 1 a.m. on Tuesday, there was "a failure of the emergency generators," according to City News Service.
Another generator from the City of Industry is reportedly on its way to the hospital.
According to the California Department of Public Health, all hospitals in the state are required to have backup generators. The hospital in Boyle Heights has three emergency generators that are supposed to last three days.
Family members of patients at the hospital's Specialty Care Center can call 323-268-5000 for more information.
Mayor Karen Bass issued the following statement regarding the evacuation:
“I want to commend the swift action by the Los Angeles Fire Department and the dedicated healthcare workers and staff who swiftly evacuated Angelenos in critical care this morning. Non-critical patients have been moved to a different area in White Memorial Hospital. The outage is ongoing and actions are being taken to ensure the safety of all patients and to restore power. We must get to the bottom of what happened and ensure that lives are not put at risk in this way ever again. Many years ago, I worked at White Memorial in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. A power outage risks the lives of all of those babies — and also the rest of the patients in critical care whose lives depend on respirators, ventilators and other critical life-sustaining equipment. Angelenos deserve a thorough examination of this incident.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
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