Patients flee New York hospital blaze

Hundreds of patients at a huge New York hospital were evacuated early today, after a fire sent smoke billowing through the casualty unit.

At least six firefighters were injured and 600 patients were moved across the sprawling complex.

The fire began in a second-floor mechanical room at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in Manhattan at about 6.30pm local time and spread to a first-floor emergency room, fire department spokesman Frank Dwyer said.

The fire was confined to the mechanical room and the cause was not known.

Mr Dwyer said patients were moved from the east wings to the west wings of the 12-storey hospital, which has nearly 1,200 beds, as firefighters searched the building. The patients had been on the third through 11th floors.

There were no reports of injuries among patients.

Mount Sinai, which occupies four square blocks on the city’s Upper East Side, was founded in central Manhattan in 1852.