Tag: fire

Another Fire Breaks Out at Charlotte Maxeke

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In what is becoming something of a regular occurrence for Gauteng hospitals, another fire has broken at beleaguered Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital on Tuesday night. Fortunately, the fire was contained to a currently unused parking area in a damaged section of the hospital. The situation was deemed not to be serious enough to warrant a patient evacuation.

A fire in April 2021 caused the closure of seven wards, with some 200 beds. Reopening had long been delayed, and there have been complaints of thefts of equipment and construction material. Alleged corruption has continued to dog the full reopening of the 1088-bed academic hospital, overloading other hospitals and also impacting the training of student doctors.

An investigation by Spotlight revealed a number of factors for the 2021 fire including ageing infrastructure, essential equipment such as fire doors not working, low water pressure and incompatible fire hydrants (due to theft), a lack of evacuation plans and a fire service that was woefully underequipped.

Gauteng department of health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba gave a report on the latest fire: “Late on Tuesday night, security personnel reported that there was smoke that seemed to be coming from one of the structures. Firefighters for the City of Joburg immediately responded to the situation and managed to contain the fire which was confined to a small section of the level two parking.”

“The level two parking is one of the areas that was affected by the April 2021 fire and is currently under props and not accessible to the public or staff except for construction people,” Modiba said.

“Upon assessment of the situation clinicians on site together with the facility’s head of disaster made a call that the situation did not warrant for patients to be evacuated as the smoke from the fire was not too thick or high risk for inhalation.”

This comes after two fires broke out within weeks of one another at Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

Another Fire Breaks Out at Steve Biko Academic Hospital

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On Sunday evening, another fire broke out at Steve Biko Academic Hospital – the second in two weeks. The fire damaged linen and prompted an evacuation but fortunately, there were no injuries resulting from the incident, Times Live reported.

Gauteng health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the cause of the latest fire was due to till-burning cigarette butts discarded by patients which “touched the ward linen room lights, burning the steel shelves and linen.”

Kekana said the damage was limited to a few items of linin. The fire started at around 6.15pm in a linen closet in a medical ward.

“The fire was quickly extinguished by staff. Patients were temporarily evacuated as a safety precaution because of smoke. By 8.15pm, patients were returned to the ward after the City of Tshwane declared the site safe,” Kekana said.

The previous fire at the hospital broke out at around 1:20am in a temporary storage area for COVID medical waste and as an in-transit corpse area. That fire affected temporary structures outside the hospital casualty area, and forced the evacuation of 18 patients.

This is the latest in a string of fires in Gauteng hospitals, such as the devastating fire at Charlotte Maxeke hospital – something which has caused concern for Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi.

Speaking about the previous fire, she said that, “It looks like every year in the Department of Health we have to deal with fires. I will be getting a report the afternoon from the law enforcement agency, especially on the Charlotte issue.”

The problem of hospital fires is not confined to Gauteng: exactly a week earlier, a blaze broke out at Chatsmed Hospital in Durban.

Source: Times Live