1.4 million medical records destroyed in fire
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1695297.shtml?cat=516
Posted at: 08/12/2010 2:32 PM | Updated at: 08/12/2010 5:40 PM
By: Charlie Pabst, KOB.com
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center announced Thursday that the majority of patient medical records created prior to 2005 were destroyed in a June warehouse fire.
The health facility says that 90% of stored records are lost, either from the fire itself or water used to extinguish the blaze. That totals 1.4 million records, according to the university.
The fire near Broadway and Mountain was visible from the entire metro area and burned for several days. The fire rekindled more than a week later.
The health sciences center says damaged and destroyed records were secured just after the fire was put out, and will be disposed of under federal laws.
The center says anyone who requests records that were destroyed will be informed of the fire and provided with a document to certify the incident.
The university says all records since 2005 are stored digitall
Read MoreCRC Fire in Albuquerque Update and Video: HVAC unit blamed for Broadway fire
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The Albuquerque Fire Department has announced the cause of a huge fire at a downtown business complex last Wednesday.
Investigators say the fire was sparked by a faulty rooftop air conditioner on the south end of the building and was aided by the evening’s high winds, eventually causing about $10 million in damage.
As the fire continues to smolder six days later, firefighters remain at the complex vigilant over flare-ups. The Albuquerque Fire Department calls it the biggest fire in recent memory.
“The tar caught on fire and was dripping tar balls from the roof into the occupancy,” said Albuquerque Fire Department Chief James Breen.
As numerous fires started inside the building, the greatest damage was inside TMM Business Records Storage. The business had high racks full of medical records which quickly caught fire. What didn’t burn is wet and weighing down the storage racks. Firefighters are worried the racks will collapse, so they still can’t go inside.
“It’s not safe to put firefighters on the inside. As a result of that, we can’t actually access some of the smoldering material that’s deep inside the structure,” Breen said. He says the Albuquerque Fire Department called in federal agents to find out where the fire began and what sparked it.
“From interviews, from eyewitnesses, from the 911 call, from the first responders– which would be the fire department actually arriving– the scene itself, all these factors come together,” explained Jake Gonzales, with the Albuquerque office of the ATF. He says they determined the fire started on the roof, with the heating ventilation and cooling unit. The unit was last inspected in April and got a clean report.
It’s estimated the fire cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. The city is now working with the owner of the building to get the medical records out. Even though they’re wet, officials believe they can be salvaged. They hope to reach an agreement on how to save the records by
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Read MoreNational Team To Help Investigate Fire: Documents Still Smoldering From Wednesday’s Warehouse Fire
National Team To Help Investigate Fire:
Documents Still Smoldering From Wednesday’s Warehouse Fire
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –
A team from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions is coming this weekend to help firefighters figure out exactly what caused Wednesday’s structure fire at Broadway Boulevard and Rosemont Avenue.
Officials said the massive fire started at about 8 p.m.Wednesday. No one was inside at the time and no injuries were reported. The fire was fueled by pallets of papers and boxes stacked at a business records storage facility, officials said. Firefighters Thursday had confined the blaze to the storage business, TMM Business Records Storage.
The company’s website claims it is a 40,000 square-foot facility used to store hard copies of documents and media. The company indicates it scans and backs up everything on site. It also touts a regularly tested disaster recovery plan.
Fire investigators were able to enter the building Friday and discovered one huge pile of documents still smoldering.
“If you can imagine a 20– or 30-ton trash pile fire, it’s going to take some time for that to burn through,” said Albuquerque Fire Department Chief James Breen.
Many documents are located on 13-foot high storage racks. The racks are now full of water and could collapse, putting firefighters’ lives at risk.
“Several tons of wet products — they exceeded the weight-bearing capacity of the racks,” said Breen.
Breen said Wednesday’s fire was one of the largest he has seen.
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“It’s not often that the Albuquerque Fire Department responds to a third-alarm fire,” Breen said. “I’ve been in about 20 years, and I can only think of one other instance where that has occured.“
Now, a BATFE national response team is on its way to help.
“It’s such a large structure, with a high fire load inside the structure, that we’re calling in a national resource at no cost to the city to assist us in determining the cause and origin of that fire,” said Breen.
Breen said the fire started on the south end of the building and was so intense, the fire suppression system inside the 50-year-old building wasn’t strong enough to put the flames out. Breen said the fire marshal is now checking into that system.
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