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Investigators determine cause of Midland Memorial Hospital roof fire

Authorities confirm a fire started on top of the old building of the hospital around 6 a.m.

MIDLAND, Texas — A fire ignited on the Midland Memorial Hospital roof around 6:11 a.m. Friday.

According to the Midland Police Department, the building was evacuated and the campus was secured.

Credit: KWES

MPD, Midland Fire and MMH worked together to ensure patient safety. 

All floors were evacuated except the ICU and CCU units and the ER, meaning 128 patients were evacuated in total. The evacuation took a total of 20 minutes.

No injuries were reported, although three employees sought medical attention.

As of 9 a.m. patients were returned to their rooms and operations resumed as normal.

Credit: KWES

Outpatient surgeries were canceled for Friday, but will be up and running again on Saturday.

Hospital officials said they ran a training with the fire department on May 2, and attributed this training as what made today's evacuation go so smoothly.

Investigators determined a roofing company had been working at the building and finished work around midnight. Part of the roofing process used torches to apply hot asphalt roofing material.

Combustibles on the roof were seemingly ignited by embers left over from the process, resulting in the fire. Minimal damage was done to the building.

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