Durban - EThekwini Fire and Emergency Services have said that the cause of the fire at Life Chatsmed Garden Hospital in Chatsworth, south of Durban, is unknown at this stage but there will be teams sent to investigate.
The hospital had been gutted by fire in the early hours of Sunday.
Recounting the events of Sunday morning, eThekwini Fire and Emergency Services divisional commander and interim commander at the scene, Sifiso Mbatha, said they got the call before 4am.
He said four rescue pumpers responded and he had about 30 firefighters battling the blaze.
“The first arriving officer found the south-east wing of the hospital was well alight and a portion of the roof had partially collapsed. We can only assume that’s where the fire started,” Mbatha said.
He said the firefighters laid out lines of hoses to get the water and extinguish the fire. Other vehicles came in and added those lines.
“Basically, all four spheres of the building where the fire was were covered by the lines, so we had teams working on each side,” Mbatha said.
“They managed to stop the spread of the fire before the whole building was compromised. Once we stopped the spread of the fire, we concentrated more on extinguishing the fire.”
Mbatha said the good part was that when they got there, all the patients in that block were evacuated and taken into an assembly point.
“What we noticed when we got there was that the assembly area was actually downwind, so we had to move those patients upwind. That means we had to move them to a safer area, because the wind was blowing towards them, so the smoke and everything was going to the patients. With the assistance of the security personnel and the staff, all those patients were safely moved to a trauma unit,” he said.
Mbatha also said that one critically ill patient in the intensive care unit, not in the same block as the one gutted by the fire, but due to the fact that that block was in the downwind, had to be evacuated from the hospital and later airlifted to Life Mount Edgecombe Hospital.
“In less than two hours, I was happy to say that we had the fire under control, the fire was not spreading and was not endangering anybody else, so we were dealing with extinguishing the fire and doing what you call salvage and overhaul – the process of turning everything and each and every block, making sure that the fire was completely out,” Mbatha said.
He said what was good was that no one was injured and no one was killed. Only one patient had smoke inhalation but was treated by paramedics on the scene.
“At this stage, the cause of the fire is unknown, but there will be teams sent out to try to investigate what could have caused the fire,” Mbatha said.
Life Healthcare regional manager Bhaviksha Maharaj said the hospital group confirmed that a fire occurred at the hospital.
“All evacuation and emergency protocols were properly followed as soon as the incident occurred, and there have been no patient or staff injuries or casualties,” Maharaj said.
“Patients have been safely evacuated to sister hospitals in the area.
“The cause of the fire has not yet been determined and hospital engineers and local fire authorities are in the process of undertaking this investigation,” Maharaj said.
She said the hospital’s management thanked all stakeholders involved for their quick response and support to ensure the immediate safety of all their patients and staff.
Daily News