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Fire Disaster Readiness: Preparation for the Evacuation of Medical Facilities During Fires in Haifa, Israel, 2016

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Anatoly Kreinin*
Affiliation:
Maale Ha’Carmel Mental Health Center affiliated with Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
Alexey Lyansberg
Affiliation:
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
Miriam Yusupov
Affiliation:
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
Daniel S. Moran
Affiliation:
Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Dr Anatoly Kreinin, Maale HaCarmel Mental Health Center, POB 9, Tirat Carmel, 30200, Israel (e-mail: kranata@gmail.com).

Abstract

When a fire occurs, there is little time to escape. In less than 30 seconds, a fire can rage out of control, filling the area with heat and toxic thick smoke (Purdue University Fire Department, 2017; http://www.purdue.edu/ehps/fire/fire-101.html.) In 2010, following the successful evacuation of Maale Ha’Carmel Mental Health Center during a raging forest fire in the area, a comprehensive investigation was performed to evaluate the management of the evacuation process and to systematically elicit lessons learned from the incident. In 2016, a forest fire erupted in the same geographic area that required the evacuation of Fliman Geriatric Rehabilitation Hospital, and methodical debriefing identified the strengths and weaknesses of the evacuation process in that hospital. The lessons learned from the evacuation of these two health care facilities, which were at the focus of major fires in Israel in 2010 and in 2016, are presented. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:375–379)

Type
Report from the Field
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2018 

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References

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