DICKSON CITY — The fire that tore through parts of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City late Wednesday and forced the evacuation of 77 patients in frigid temperatures prompted a multifront response that continued Thursday, with investigators probing the blaze and other local hospitals caring for pa tients transferred amid the emergency. There were no injuries reported as a result of the fire that broke out about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday — sending skyward flames through the roof of the Dickson City hospital’s orthopedic center into the frosty air — but Lackawanna County EMA Director Tom Taylor said the hospital’s third and fourth floors sustained smoke damage and the orthopedic side of the facility appeared to be “a total loss.” A hospital spokesperson said Thursday it remains “temporarily closed while teams conduct thorough damage assessments and plan for a safe reopening.” Individuals still seeking to reunite with family or loved ones should call 610-402-0498. During the evacuation, patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers or walking with help from staff were relocated to an adjacent building at 316 Main Ave. in the borough. Evacuated patients were triaged, with critical patients transported first to hospitals across the region, Taylor said, noting Thursday that all patients had been transported to other hospitals within three hours of the start of the fire. Crews rush to a fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Dickson City at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2026. Authorities on Thursday morning continued to investigate the fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City that sent flames shooting from the roof and required the evacuation of 77 patients relocated to other area hospitals. (COLIN GILDEA/NEPA Fire Photography) It was not immediately clear Thursday how many of the 77 evacuated patients remained at other hospitals, but Geisinger said Thursday morning that 12 such patients were transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton and one to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. Of the 13, five were in fair condition as of 8:25 a.m., three were in good condition, one was in critical condition and four had been treated and released. Another two had been treated and released by Thursday afternoon, per an update Geisinger provided about 3:30 p.m. Of the seven that remained at that point — six at GCMC and one GWV — five were in good condition, one was in fair condition and one was in serious condition, Geisinger said. Commonwealth Health said in a statement about 11:30 a.m. that its hospitals were caring for eight transferred patients, all of whom were evaluated and provided with appropriate care by Commonwealth clinical teams. “We are grateful to the firefighters and first responders for their swift and professional response, and we thank our physicians, nurses, and staff for their quick thinking and teamwork during this event,” the statement said. “We are proud of how the community came together during this time.” Dickson City fire on Feb. 4. (COURTESY NEPA FIRE PHOTOGRAPHY) The extent of the damage to the Dickson City hospital was still being assessed Thursday, but its closure, even temporarily, adds pressure to an already strained local health care landscape, including in terms of emergency department capacity. Jen Huber, a telemetry nurse at GCMC and president of the Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association there, a local of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union, said in a statement provided by PASNAP that all of the Scranton hospital’s floors were at capacity and the ER was indescribable. “(I) don’t know how we are going to function without that hospital,” she said of the Dickson City facility. “It’s a hospital health care crisis.” Overcoming obstacles In order to successfully fight the flames, fire personnel needed to de-energize an MRI machine on an upper floor of the hospital, Dickson City Fire Chief Richard Chowanec said Thursday. “The MRI machine is basically a big magnet and if we were to enter the room while it was still energized, it would pull the tools out of our hand, anything metal, including an air pack,” he said. “You would be stuck to it.” Firefighters and hospital personnel worked with staff from General Electric to first release helium from the equipment and then deactivate it. But Chowanec ultimately withdrew firefighters from inside the burning hospital because of safety concerns. First responders from several departments gather outside Lehigh Valley Hospital in Dickson City on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2026, after a significant fire forced the evacuation of the hospital. (CHAD SEBRING/STAGG PHOTO) That decision stemmed from “the severe fire conditions that were above the firefighters’ heads,” he said. “There (was) a lot of mechanical equipment on the roof, including HVAC units and lot of duct work in the ceiling.” Chowanec also said firefighters were able to prevent the spread of the fire to the main hospital with the benefit of a fire wall. Crews knocked down the blaze in about 30 minutes, but were still working on hot spots after midnight, he said. The charred roof on the orthopedic side of the facility was visible Thursday morning as public safety officials from Lehigh Valley directed certain vehicles in and out of the parking lot and police tape surrounded the scene. A Scranton fire inspector and several Dickson City police and fire vehicles made their way in and out of the parking lot, and a Damage Control truck was parked in front of the hospital. However, the scene remained mostly quiet during the late morning as the temperature held in the high teens. A group of hospital employees gathered on a side road to get a glimpse of the damage but declined to comment. ‘They show up’ U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., who traveled back from Washington and arrived at the fire scene about 1:30 a.m., said in a video posted on social media Thursday that the fire response “showed the best of our community.” He noted many relocated patients were moved to local hospitals, including GCMC, GWV and Commonwealth Health’s Regional Hospital of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. Crews rush to a fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Dickson City at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2026. Authorities on Thursday morning continued to investigate the fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City that sent flames shooting from the roof and required the evacuation of 77 patients relocated to other area hospitals. (COLIN GILDEA/NEPA Fire Photography) “Lehigh Valley Health Network is reaching out to the families directly and we’re thankful to all those hospitals for stepping up and ensuring continuity of care for every single patient,” Bresnahan said. “That’s because hospital teams and first responders here in Northeastern Pennsylvania know how to handle moments like this. They show up, keep calm and they take care of their neighbors.” Bresnahan noted in a phone interview Thursday that he discussed the Dickson City situation with Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who “pledged any and all support through CMS.” The congressman has also been in communication with the White House, he said. In a statement, Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti expressed deep gratitude for first responders and Lehigh Valley Hospital staff “whose quick thinking, professionalism, and compassion ensured that dozens of patients were moved safely and with dignity.” “I’d also like to commend every local hospital worker who sprang into action and immediately stood ready to assist, including Geisinger Community Medical Center and Regional Hospital employees here in Scranton,” she said. “Doctors, nurses, and support staff did not hesitate to open their doors, clear beds, and prepare teams to receive patients in the middle of the night. When faced with an emergency, their focus was simple and shared: taking in patients and caring for them when they needed it most.”‘ Crews rush to a fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Dickson City at about 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2026. Authorities on Thursday morning continued to investigate the fire at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City that sent flames shooting from the roof and required the evacuation of 77 patients relocated to other area hospitals. (COLIN GILDEA/NEPA Fire Photography) State Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp., responded to the fire scene late Wednesday with Drew Popish, her former chief of staff who now serves as northeast regional director for the governor’s office. A longtime registered nurse, Kosierowski praised the health care workers who evacuated, stabilized and kept safe patients removed from the Dickson City hospital, as well as staff at the receiving hospitals. “It is not short of a miracle that no one was injured and that the patients are safe,” she said. “I was really impressed with the coordination and the calmness of (the response), but that’s what these people train to do. That’s who they are. Again, I can’t say it enough, we are so blessed with the workforce we have here and the camaraderie of care. And I watched it live.” Hospital history The Dickson City hospital is one of the newer health care facilities in the region. The for-profit, physician-owned Coordinated Health broke ground at the Dickson City site in January 2019, after acquiring Scranton Orthopaedic Specialists in 2017. But work on what would have been called Coordinated Health Scranton Hospital soon stalled, and didn’t resume in earnest until after nonprofit Lehigh Valley Health Network acquired Coordinated in December 2019. Officials gathered at the site to announce plans for an expanded hospital in October 2020, after construction had resumed. The acquisition and the hospital project marked Lehigh Valley Health Network’s first major foray into Lackawanna County and the Scranton area. The new Dickson City hospital also filled a void in the Midvalley region left when Mid Valley Hospital, a Commonwealth Health facility in Blakely, eliminated inpatient services and its emergency room in 2014. The new hospital ultimately opened in May 2022 with a 19-bay emergency room. It celebrated in June 2023 the addition of seven ICU beds and nine new medical-surgical beds on a previously unfinished fourth floor of the then roughly year-old facility. Lehigh Valley Health Network and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health completed a merger in 2024, closing the transaction that summer. The cause of Wednesday’s fire remains under investigation. ...read more read less