WHEN THE POWER WENT OUT IN SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, YESTERDAY MORNING around 6 AM, the Kaiser-Santa Teresa Medical Center went dark because their new backup generator didn’t backup.
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All images courtesy Ch. 11
The recently-installed generator had been tested “exhaustively” when it was installed. But when the power failed, the generator kicked in and started up ok, but it wouldn’t put out any electricity.
Fortunately, Engine 18 was at the hospital assisting their medic unit with a cardiac patient. The San Jose Mercury News tells:
When the captain on duty, Steve Moreno, saw the lights go out, he immediately called for help and backup generators, which bridged the 20-minute gap while the hospital’s machines were not working. Those generators were up and running in about five minutes.
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“Our captain made the right calls and averted an emergency,” said Fire Capt. Steve Alvarado, a department spokesman. “We worked alongside hospital staff and called the right agencies here to help. We analyzed the situation and worked fast. . . . There was no chaos.”
The special call brought four engines and two trucks that arrived with generators, flashlights and other tools. In addition, five county ambulances waited on stand-by, poised to take any walk-ins to another hospital. The 30 firefighters went throughout the hospital, bed to bed, to confirm that all the patients were doing ok. There were no surgeries in progress at the time
The article that tells the full story is HERE.
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