Fire cuts power to hospital, 6 state departments

CRANSTON – State offices at the John O. Pastore campus were open today despite an underground electrical fire that left many departments without electrical or telephone service.

Affected are the operator control office of the Division of Motor Vehicles plus the state Department of Corrections; Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF); Department of Human Services; Department of Labor and Training (DLT); and Department of Mental Health, Retardation and hospitals (MHRH), including the main branch of Eleanor Slater Hospital.

Telephone service, Internet access and e-mail may be restored to those offices by the end of the day, the state Department of Administration said, but electrical service may take until the end of the week. Meanwhile, backup generators are providing limited power.

At Eleanor Slater Hospital, visitation hours remain unchanged and all medically necessary services are being provided, officials said. “The generators kicked in when power was lost,” the hospital said in a statement this afternoon, “and additional generators have been delivered.” The extra generators were to be installed tonight, giving the hospital enough electricity to power its air conditioners.

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The incident spurred the activation of the hospital’s emergency operation plan; the staff, “acting with an abundance of caution,” also notified the R.I. Department of Health and R.I. Emergency Management Agency.

Inquiries about patients at Eleanor Slater Hospital were directed to 255-0910, hospital staffing questions to 255-0904, and all other MHRH business to 255-0912.

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