PPE lost as fire guts storeroom of Gauteng hospital

One of the buildings at the Carletonville Hospital caught fire on Thursday, resulting in  significant destruction of items inside - including personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers.

This is according to the Gauteng health department, which on Friday confirmed the fire had not disrupted hospital services. There were no casualties.

The hospital was being used for temporary storage of health equipment and linen meant for the Anglo-Ashanti Hospital during its construction phase, as the facilities are relatively close to one another.

“Most of the items in storage were completely destroyed.”

A team of engineers has visited the site to assess the electrical appliances. The department is awaiting their official report.

“The fire department has already initiated investigations into the cause of the fire and a police case has been opened to also investigate all issues surrounding the cause of the fire,” it said.

The department said the hospital has replenished the PPE stock from the provincial warehouses and an alternative storage area has been identified within the hospital to keep it.

SowetanLIVE reported that the blaze started at about 6am and took three hours to extinguish.

Acting manager of emergency services in the West Rand, Bongani Momoza, said their preliminary investigations indicated that the fire could have been started deliberately.

“We checked the electrical wiring to see if it could have caused the fire, but we found that there is no wiring in the storeroom. We then looked at whether the sanitisers could have self-ignited because they were stored in a room with no ventilation, but we found nothing,” he said.

TimesLIVE