{"id":106174,"date":"2026-02-05T18:14:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106174\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:14:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:14:06","slug":"lvh-fire-once-in-a-lifetime-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/106174\/","title":{"rendered":"LVH fire \u2018Once in a Lifetime\u2019 Emergency’"},"content":{"rendered":"

DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A massive, coordinated emergency response unfolded Wednesday night after a fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital\u2013Dickson City forced the evacuation of all patients, staff and visitors, according to Lackawanna County Emergency Management officials.<\/p>\n

Tom Taylor, Director of Emergency Management for Lackawanna County, said his office worked throughout the night to support hospital operations and first responders as crews rushed to the scene and patients were relocated across the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur role was really to provide support to the hospital and to the first responders \u2014 and make sure they had whatever resources they needed,\u201d Taylor said in a phone interview Thursday.<\/p>\n

Taylor said one of the county\u2019s key responsibilities after the evacuation was assisting with communication and reunification efforts, helping ensure families could find out where their loved ones were transferred. He credited the Lehigh Valley Health Network with tracking every patient during the evacuation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a great job keeping track of where all the patients went,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThat made the reunification process much smoother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambulances From Multiple Counties Respond<\/p>\n

While officials do not yet have an exact count, Taylor estimated that about 25 ambulances from four to five different counties were staged near the hospital as part of the response. He said the focus was on rapidly moving resources to the scene in large numbers in case conditions worsened.<\/p>\n

Patients were transported to several hospitals across northeastern and central Pennsylvania. Taylor confirmed some patients were taken to Geisinger facilities, while others were transported as far as Pocono Medical Center, marking the longest transfers of the night.<\/p>\n

Within roughly 30 minutes, emergency managers had identified enough available hospital beds to accommodate every patient evacuated from LVH\u2013Dickson City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big priority,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWe were able to make sure there was a place for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Taylor is Director of Emergency Management for Lackawanna County<\/p>\n

\u2018Once in a Lifetime\u2019 Emergency’<\/p>\n

Taylor, who has nearly three decades of experience in emergency services, said the incident was unlike anything he had encountered before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime emergency,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my 29 years in emergency services, I\u2019ve never experienced anything on this level.\u201d<\/p>\n

He praised the response from volunteer firefighters, EMS crews, 911 dispatchers, local police departments, and the Pennsylvania State Police. At one point, Taylor said nearly 30 state troopers were on scene assisting with evacuations and security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing how many people showed up just to help,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cWhether it was moving patients, setting up tents, or just doing whatever needed to be done \u2014 it was incredible to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported as a result of the fire or evacuation. Emergency crews remained on scene into Thursday as officials continued to assess damage and investigate the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 A massive, coordinated emergency response unfolded Wednesday night after a fire at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-106174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}