A massive fire broke out on the rooftop of a hospital in New York City on Friday, leaving two people injured.
According to a spokesperson for the New York Fire Department, the huge blaze was reported at the 257-bed St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, Queens at 5:15 pm, the Daily Mail reported.
25 units responded to the scene, with more than 100 firefighters battling the flames.
The fire was under control after 6 pm.
The spokesperson said that two civilians have been injured but the extent of their injuries is not clear. He said that the fire was on the exterior part of the roof and it was not clear how it started.
NYPD officials told Pix11 that the emergency room of the hospital had been evacuated.
Patients and staff in several departments were evacuated as the fire broke out while others were sheltered in place as emergency workers searched the hospital.
Videos and photos posted on social media showed the rooftop of the building on fire and people running out of the hospital. Doctors in their scrubs were standing outside, taking photos and videos of the fire.
Huge black smoke billowed out across Rockaway Beach and was visible from Manhattan.
Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president, said that the blaze was on the hospital’s rooftop and that the 11th floor sustained water damage.
Founded 110 years ago, the hospital is described as the only facility providing “emergency and ambulatory care to the densely populated, culturally and economically diverse, and medically underserved populations of the Rockaways and Five Towns in southern Queens County and southwestern Nassau County, New York.”
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