Members of Lincoln Fire and Rescue's Hazardous Materials Team responded Wednesday night to a chemical spill at Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center.
Monitoring equipment mounted in the hospital’s lab detected a small amount of ethylene oxide, which is used to sterilize equipment, at 9:52 p.m., Lincoln Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Pat Borer said.
The amount detected was below the guidelines for permissible levels set by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, he said.
Borer said the staff was calibrating equipment when the chemical was detected. While the lab was evacuated, the rest of the hospital continued to operate  normally.
Hazmat team members entered the room to monitor for the chemical but did not detect any. They allowed  the room to be reoccupied and left the scene after 45 minutes, Borer said.

MARLBOROUGH —
Fire officials said a chemical leak alarm at the Marlborough Hospital forced firefighters to cordon off a portion of the hospital this morning, although hospital officials say no chemicals actually escpaed.

According to the Marlborough Fire Department, firefighters went to the hospital's laboratory/central sterile supply area at 6:03 a.m. for an ethylene oxide alarm. Ethylene oxide is a flammable gas.

A small portion of the hospital was cordoned off, and a hazardous materials response team from the Department of Fire Services assisted the Marlborough Fire Department.

Melissa Hodgson, a Marlborough Hospital spokeswoman, said yesterday that no gas had actually escaped and that a sensor in the area had faulted, triggering the alarm.

VENICE - A sensor malfunction at Venice Regional Medical Center that indicated the possible release of a harmful chemical led authorities to evacuate and close the emergency room for about an hour Friday night.

"It was a very controlled evacuation," said Venice Fire Department Chief John Reed, whose units responded at about 7:22 p.m.

A machine that disinfects medical equipment set off an alarm that led hospital workers to think the highly toxic chemical ethylene oxide had escaped. The chemical is highly flammable and dangerous, Reed said.

About two dozen emergency responders from the city and Sarasota County responded. Incoming ambulances were diverted to other hospitals during the shutdown.

No one was injured.

"We are not sure how it happened," Venice fire medic Jerry Collins said of the machine error.

The chemical is put into a disinfectant machine, which is closed; a cannister of the chemical is then punctured to begin the decontamination, Collins said. When the alarm sounded, the technician followed protocol and immediately evacuated the room; authorities then cordoned off a sizeable area around the emergency entrance.

Venice recently dismantled its hazardous materials response team because of budget cuts and had to rely on Sarasota County Fire Department specialists to respond to the possible contamination.

LORAIN — Several Mercy Regional Medical Center staff members were evacuated yesterday after alarms sounded at the hospital at 10:55 a.m. indicating a hazardous material leak.

The alarm indicted there was a high level of ethylene oxide leaking in the sterilization area. However, hospital spokeswoman Kasha Frese said no leak was found and no one was injured. She called the incident a false alarm.

Lorain fire Capt. Dennis Livchak said the area contains equipment used in the sterilization of surgical equipment. Livchak said there is a bank of cylinders in that room containing the ethylene oxide, which has a high risk of fire and exposure hazard, which is why an alarm is used in the area.

A Seattle Fire hazmat team responded to a chemical leak at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Friday night — but by the time they arrived, the leak of a chemical gas had already cleaned itself up.

Seattle Fire spokeswoman Lt. Sue Stangl said part of the hospital was evacuated at about 9 p.m. Friday near a room where ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment, is kept. In the event of a leak, a system in the room generally detects the substance and sets off an alarm, starts its ventilation system and automatically cleans everything — which is exactly what happened.