7:25PM EST: A three-alarm fire broke out inside an emergency room at Mount Sinai Medical Center on the Upper East Side.

There are reports of thick smoke. Emergency responders have begun evacuations. An unconfirmed report from the scene indicates that the fire is out but that firefighters are coping with a heavy smoke condition.

The NYPD has called for a Level 1 mobilization response.

The hospital is located at East 98th Street and Madison Avenue.

UPDATE: The fire began shortly before 6:30 p.m. in a second-floor mechanical room at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and spread to a first-floor emergency room, Fire Department of New York spokesman Frank Dwyer said. The fire was confined to the mechanical room; its cause was unknown.

Flames in the Manhattan building were visible from the adjacent Madison Avenue.

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

(YWN-HPO105 / YWN-HPO106)