A brave patient in one of the wards at the Dr Yusuf Dadoo Hospital in Krugersdorp recently prevented what could have been a catastrophe.

The hospital said in a statement they could confirm rumours of a fire incident in one of the male medical wards situated outside the main hospital building.

The fire happened at 10:00 last Saturday and fortunately, one of the admitted patients, who is an electrician by trade, managed to switch off the main switch.

“He then took one of the ward’s fire extinguishers and extinguished it,” said the statement.

Krugersdorp News spoke to the hero, Mohammed Vahed, about the incident.

He explained how they smelled smoke and then realised it was coming from the electrical box near the nurses’ desk, next to the door. They realised the box was on fire.

He said one of the patients turned off all the breakers with his bare hands while they were all evacuating the ward, but that did not stop the flames, adding there were oxygen bottles right underneath the box. The bottles were too heavy for the nurses so the patients and security then removed the bottles.

According to him, none of the security or nurses knew how to use the fire extinguisher and one of the patients then had to put out the fire with the extinguisher.

Vahed said he was in the hospital for eight days and the first thing that went through his mind was that he needed to get out.

“I thought any second there was going to be a bigger explosion and I was trying to look for the furthest place to stand so that I could get as far away as possible. I was a good 12 to 25m away from the door that we came out of.”

He remembers the nurses did push the panic button that connects to the main hospital but, according to him, nobody from the main hospital came through to help. He said although neither the nurses nor the security had fire training, they were great people who tried to help save the people from a potentially bad situation.

The patients were then taken to a refurbished ward and Vahed said it was only afterward that they realised how serious the situation could have been. He remembers thinking that management was not viewing the situation as a serious incident.

“The nurses are great people but they are powerless, working in the conditions that are given to them.”

The scariest part for him is that the newly refurbished ward is also made from asbestos. He added that there were no proper fire protocols in place and the nurses were ill-prepared. He said the fire broke out during the day but at night they lock the doors and there is no emergency exit, claiming that if the fire happened at night people could have died.

“I do think management is great and can be fixed. I spoke to the CEO about my illness and he came across as a great person and a great leader. I think he can fix things but it still feels like something is lacking.”

Dr Rodney Pheto, the CEO, said they are grateful for the electrician who was there at the right time and helped prevent the fire from causing more damage to the building or even worse – the loss of the life of the patients or nurses.

“After the assessment, it was discovered that load-shedding was the contributing factor to this incident. There were no casualties experienced and none of the patients were hurt but two nursing staff members consulted at accident and emergency unit due to panic attacks and anxiety. All admitted patients were moved to our extra ward.”