By Linda Taaffe

Astack of 9-volt batteries in a supply closet were probably responsible for the two-alarm fire on the fourth floor of El Camino Hospital Feb. 22, said Lynn Brown, a spokesman for the Mountain View Fire Department.

Fire investigators said they strongly believe the batteries were touching one another, which generated enough heat to ignite supplies in the 6.5-by- 5-foot plastic storage unit that could be accessed only with a plastic key card.

The fire was relatively small, Brown said, but the excessive smoke required a second alarm as firefighters evacuated 40 patients from the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the hospital’s west wing. The top floors are used for cardiac patients being monitored, those recovering from surgery and those being treated for medical conditions, such as kidney dysfunction.

The call came in at 10 a.m., Brown said. The fire was extinguished by 10:30 a.m., before the second alarm was called.

“The (hospital) staff was very well prepared,” Brown said. “The alarm system worked like a gem. We knew the exact room to go to when we got there. We didn’t have to look around.”

Staff moved the patients to the ER, the second floor and the east wing. There were no reported injuries during the evacuation, said hospital spokeswoman Judy Twitchell.

Hospital volunteer Judy VanDyck, who was visiting patients in the recovery area when the fire broke out, said the hospital response was awesome.

“Everybody did their job,” she said. “I’m so impressed. It was like pressing a button and watching action figures go into action.”

The smoke cleanup lasted through the afternoon.

The damage was relatively minor, Twitchell said.