Newswatch 16’s Emily Kress spoke with a Lackawanna County woman about the fire that forced her to evacuate from the Dickson City hospital.

DICKSON CITY, Pa. — “It just seemed like it was in a movie at first.” Rebecca Santerangelo of Peckville was one of the 77 patients evacuated from Lehigh Valley Hospital, Dickson City, Wednesday night, as a fire ripped through the Orthopedic Institute.

She says that night, she noticed a smell of something burning from her room in the ICU. Her nurse checked around but couldn’t find anything, but that quickly changed.

“The lung therapist was with me, and when she came back, she said everyone is getting out. We just looked at her, and she said, ‘There is a fire,'” described Santerangelo. 

The elevators were down, so the respiratory therapist helped her down flights of stairs to get outside. 

“By the time we got to the bottom and made it outside, we could smell smoke, but you couldn’t see any.” 

Santerangelo is now at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, receiving care.

She says not long after getting outside, the flames began to appear. While the evacuation was taking place, she tells Newswatch 16, she wasn’t scared, but noticed her two sons and grandsons were on scene, fighting the fire with Blakley Hose Company. 

“It’s something I would never want to live through again, but it made me proud of my own family and every other volunteer fire department that is in this area that fights for each other,” said Santerangelo. 

Now, in the days that followed, a message of gratitude. 

“If anybody sees a fireman, say thank you. If you see the policeman, say thank you. When you’re in the hospital or just walking through, thank them because if it wasn’t for them, we won’t be alive.” 

The main hospital sustained smoke and water damage, but was not touched by the fire. 

A state police fire marshal is continuing to investigate the cause.