Another fire breaks out at Steve Biko hospital
“While the definitive cause of the fire is unknown, the facility confirmed that fresh cigarette butts were found close to the area where the fire started.”
A fire, the second one in less than a month, broke out at the Steve Biko academic hospital on Sunday evening.
The fire led to patients being temporarily evacuated to avoid smoke inhalation, according to Gauteng health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana.
She said the “small” fire broke out at one of the linen closets in a medical ward at the hospital around 18:15.
“Only linen was damaged because the staff managed to quickly extinguish the fire,” Kekana said.
“Patients were temporarily evacuated as a safety precaution because of smoke.”
By 20:15, the evacuated patients were returned to the ward after the Tshwane emergency services declared the site to be safe.
“While the definitive cause of the fire is unknown, the facility confirmed that fresh cigarette butts were found close to the area where the fire started.”
This recent fire at the hospital follows one on May 30 during which 18 patients and a corpse had to be evacuated from a Wendy house that was used as a temporary storage area for Covid-19 medical waste and an in-transit corpse area.
Hospital staff put out the fire using fire extinguishers on site.
She said no other patients or staff were injured.
No cause for this fire was found.
“Its cause couldn’t be linked to a particular source,” said Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Charles Mabaso.
ALSO READ: Cause of Steve Biko hospital fire still undetermined – Tshwane EMS
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