Mercy Hospital in Cassville will remain closed until at least tonight after a fire in a rooftop air conditioning unit.

No one was hurt during the fire, which began about 6:30 Monday morning.

Six patients were taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Aurora.

About a quarter of the building has smoke and water damage.

The Mercy Family Medicine Clinic in Cassville is also closed.

Mercy will have staff on hand in case of an emergency.

Patients will be stabilized and sent to the appropriate facility.

Here’s more from Mercy:

Mercy Hospital Cassville and Mercy Clinic Family Medicine – Cassville will remain closed until at least Tuesday evening after a fire in a rooftop HVAC unit.

No one was hurt during the fire, which began about 6:30 Monday morning. When smoke detectors sounded, Mercy co-workers immediately evacuated all six patients to ambulances. All were taken to Mercy Hospital Aurora after staff contacted their family members.

When fire crews arrived, they immediately began fighting the flames. While damage to the building is confined to less than a quarter of the facility, inspectors need to ensure that all systems in the unaffected parts of the building are still working correctly.

“Right now, we think we’re mostly dealing with smoke and water damage,” said Valerie Davis, administrator of Mercy Hospital Cassville. “But we want to ensure everything is running perfectly and is safe for both our patients and co-workers before we resume patient care. We are so grateful for the quick response from our co-workers, fire crews and law enforcement.”

While the emergency room is closed, a physician, ambulance and support staff are standing by in case someone comes to the ER with a critical need. The patient will be stabilized and sent to the closest appropriate facility for care.

Since the clinic is housed in the same building as the hospital, it will also be closed for at least tomorrow. Mercy is calling scheduled patients to give them the option of rescheduling their appointments or seeing their doctors in neighboring Mercy clinics in Monett and Shell Knob.

Mercy will notify the public immediately when the Cassville hospital has reopened its ER.