At least 85 people, including 79 and six staff members, were safely evacuated from Tembisa Provincial Hospital on Saturday evening after part of the facility caught fire. 

“The fire is only limited to the external emergency area. The rest of the hospital, the wards, and other areas are functional. The hospital will remain closed for now and will not receive any other patients until the status is updated,” says Gauteng health Head of Depatment Lesiba Malotana.

A joint operation centre has been established, where the disaster management teams from the City of Ekurhuleni and Gauteng Emergency Medical Services (EMS) will work together to investigate the cause of the fire and ensure that patients are kept safe. 

Ekurhuleni mayor, Nkosindiphile Xhakaza adds that the various teams have been deployed inside the hospital to follow-up on patients and ensure that none of them have been affected by smoke from the fire.

The extent of the damage could not be verified as emergency services teams worked on ensuring that there were no flare-ups. 

However, insiders from the hospital said that the fire allegedly started at the store room inside the casualty ward and the entire area has burnt down.

“The area has been cordoned off, we are relying on our emergency teams who are inside for updates and at this stage it is an area that we don’t have access to,” says Xhakaza.

Thembi Nkomo* is one of the vendors who sells food outside the main entrance of the hospital. She was at her table when the fire started.

While Nkomo* does not know what led to the fire, she tells Health-e News that they only realised there was a fire at the hospital when they started seeing people running out of the hospital, some were trying to put the fire out with fire extinguishers and buckets of water.

“I first smelled some smoke but was not sure where it was coming from. We only realised after about 10 minutes that the smoke was coming from the hospital. The first fire truck arrived about 20 minutes later and it was followed by three more shortly after that as the fire got bigger,” she says. 

Among the bystanders were concerned families who had heard about the fire and wanted to ensure that their loved ones who had been admitted to the hospital were safe.

“We are worried about what has happened here because our relative who is admitted at ward 16 is an elderly person who suffers from a lung infection, so we are worried that he might inhale the smoke,” says a family member who asked not to be named.

“We tried to go in when we first heard about the fire but the area was closed to the public. The entire family is not taking this well, especially because we were already unhappy with the state of the ward when we visited yesterday,” the family member adds.

The hospital will not be receiving any patients until further notice and the public has been advised to use surrounding health facilities for emergencies and medical treatment.

Members of the public who are concerned about their loved ones are advised to call 011 923 2000 for updates. – Health-e News