Patient incident temporarily closes Cheshire Medical Center's ER
Dec. 13—The emergency department at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene diverted ambulances for several hours Monday afternoon after a patient discharged a fire extinguisher in the waiting area, triggering a fire alarm, hospital officials said.
At around noon, a behavioral-health patient took a fire extinguisher from the wall and fired it toward staff, according to hospital spokesman Matthew Barone.
The hospital issued an emergency code red, indicating a fire, but this was because the fire alarm was activated; there was no fire, Cheshire Medical said in a news release.
In the incident's aftermath, patients who'd already been admitted to the emergency department were moved to other parts of the hospital.
Ambulances were also diverted from the emergency department, but by 4 p.m. it was once again accepting new patients. No one was injured in the incident, Barone said in an email.
The Keene Fire Department responded to the fire alarm at 11:57 a.m., according to Chief Mark Howard.
The patient had used a dry-chemical fire extinguisher, Howard said, which left a "pretty extensive" mess of fine powder in the emergency department.
