Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City will reopen Friday following last week\u2019s fire that tore through its older orthopedic wing and impacted areas of the main hospital that opened in 2022, owner Jefferson Health announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
The planned reopening of the hospital\u2019s emergency department and operating rooms, and the resumption of limited inpatient services, \u201cfollows an inspection by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and coordination with borough officials,\u201d the health system said. The emergency room is expected to resume operations at 7 a.m., followed by the operating rooms at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 4 blaze prompted a massive local response by first responders and forced the nighttime evacuation of 77 hospital patients in freezing temperatures, but did not result in any injuries. The facility has been closed since as officials worked to assess smoke and other damage to the newer section of the hospital \u2014 which was protected from more significant damage by a modern fire wall \u2014 and prepare for its safe reopening.<\/p>\n
\u201cAchieving this reopening just one week after such a devastating fire underscores the extraordinary coordination, commitment and resilience of more than 400 Jefferson colleagues, partners and contractors who worked around the clock to safely restore care for the community,\u201d Jefferson said in its announcement. \u201cTheir work was guided by a shared commitment to patient safety, clinical excellence and the trust the community places in Jefferson Health every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jefferson CEO Joseph G. Cacchione, M.D., expressed a similar sentiment in a statement included in the reopening release.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis milestone speaks to the unwavering dedication and teamwork of our Jefferson colleagues, and the strong partnership we\u2019ve had with local and state partners throughout this recovery,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to safely restore these essential services, and we remain fully committed to supporting the health and well-being of the Dickson City community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reopening announcement comes after Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Dickson City earlier this week and inspected the fire site before lauding the first responders and hospital workers who battled the blaze and evacuated patients in frigid conditions.<\/p>\n
![\"Dickson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770931567_613_STT-L-SHAPIRODICKSON-021025-01.jpg\")
Dickson City Mayor Robert MacCallum shakes hand with Governor Josh Shapiro at Dickson City Fire Department\u2019s Eagle Hose Company No. 1 on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. The governor along with Pennsylvania State Fire Commissioner Thomas Cook visited the department to show support to first responders after last week\u2019s Lehigh Valley Hospital fire. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
\u201cI stopped by there on my way over because I wanted to see it in person,\u201d Shapiro said Tuesday during remarks at Eagle Hose Company No. 1 in the borough. \u201cObviously, the scope of the damage was extraordinary. And when you\u2019re approaching a scene like that, it\u2019s very complex because it\u2019s not just some vacant building where you have to put out a fire. You\u2019re in a densely populated area with 77 people in the hospital. The staff acted so courageously and did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful there are people like you out there that when the bell rings, you run toward danger,\u201d he told first responders there. \u201cThis is just the latest example where tragedy came to a community that would have been far worse but for the bravery of those from Eagle Hose Company No. 1 and the other eight responding departments that ran toward that hospital to extinguish the fire and ensure that everyone could get out safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators have yet to announce the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n
Jefferson said work to restore additional services at the hospital \u2014 beyond \u201cemergency, surgical and limited inpatient services\u201d \u2014 is ongoing. The health system \u201ccontinues to assess, repair and prepare remaining areas of the campus, with patient and colleague safety as the top priority,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
As part of the reopening plan announced Thursday, \u201csurgeries will occur over the weekend to accelerate access to care for patients whose procedures were temporarily delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials also established a mobile kitchen on-site to ensure food services are available to patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the fire, we heard countless stories of people stepping in without hesitation,\u201d Joseph Pinto, Jefferson\u2019s regional chief operating officer, said in the release. \u201cDoctors who ended their shift and drove immediately to Dickson City, clinicians who took the jackets off their backs to help warm cold patients during the evacuation, and volunteer firefighters, EMS, police and state troopers who helped usher our patients and staff to safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose acts of quiet heroism made a profound difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City will reopen Friday following last week\u2019s fire that tore through its older orthopedic wing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1099,1057,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,729],"class_list":["post-112392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-dickson-city","tag-health","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112392","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=112392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}