CIGARETTE CAUSES HOSPITAL BLAZE

. . . two patients, rape convict, die in fire

A CIGARETTE is suspected to have caused a fire at a Limpopo hospital which led to the death of two patients on Tuesday morning.

According to health department officials, who wished to remain anonymous because they are not authorised to speak with the media, one of the surviving patients allegedly was smoking a cigarette in the Covid-19 ward.

The fire killed two patients, one of them an inmate convicted of rape. Both had been admitted at FH Odendaal Hospital in Modimolle on Monday.

“There were pieces of cigarettes in the ward. There was one patient who survived and has been bothering us that he wanted to smoke inside the ward,” he said.

He added that despite nurses refusing the patient to smoke, he allegedly defied their orders.

Another official from the department, who attended the scene with MEC Phophi Ramathuba, also confirmed that according to the information they received, it is suspected the cigarette caused the fire.

“Apparently the patient was smoking when his cigarette gutted the sheets. We are told that even when the patients were being evacuated, he demanded to leave with his pack of cigarettes,” said the official.

MEC Ramathuba didn’t deny or confirm if indeed a lit cigarette was suspected to be the cause, but said a formal investigation would reveal what caused the fire.

The MEC added that one of the patients who died after inhaling smoke was unconscious when he was admitted after he had been receiving treatment from a traditional healer.

“The patient was critically ill and was unconscious when he was admitted. He was being treated by a sangoma in Lephalale and was due to be referred to a doctor,” she said.

The department of correctional services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo confirmed that an inmate who was convicted of rape also died of smoke inhalation.

“The 61-year-old inmate serving a life sentenced for rape at Modimolle Correctional Centre was admitted in one of the hospitals in Limpopo when his ward caught fire. The department has dispatched social workers to inform the family of the inmate,” he said.

Ramathuba said nurses at the hospital managed to extinguish the fire and rescue other patients inside the ward.

The MEC said a team of fire experts from the SAPS and Forensic Pathology were dispatched to the hospital to establish what caused the fire.

DA MPL Risham Maharaj said the party is calling for a thorough investigation into the fire and the circumstances surrounding it.

“An incident like this raises issues around the hospital’s compliance with the prescribed norms and standards of the Office of Health Standards Compliance and whether this fire was caused by human error or if it was caused by faulty electrical installations or machinery and if there were functioning fire extinguishers in the facility,” he said. —