Pretoria - The Gauteng Health Department is still unsure how much it's going to cost to repair the Steve Biko Academic Hospital after a fire ripped through one of the floors on Saturday night.
Hospital spokesman Steve Mabona said it was too soon to tell how much it will cost to repair the damage.
“Investigations are still under way to determine the damage.”
On Saturday night, 13 employees were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at the hospital. The department said the fire broke out at 10.30pm.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the fire might have been caused by a cigarette stub that was thrown from the eighth or ninth floor of the hospital.
“The fire broke out in a shaft at level three. Smoke went up to levels eight and nine, which house 94 patients from different disciplines (such as) internal medicine, cardiology, paediatrics, urology, gynaecology, maternity and neonatal,” said Mabona.
The shaft is an electrical and maintenance crawl space.
All patients were immediately evacuated, with the exception of the neonatal and paediatric, as well as the intensive care units (ICU).
The firefighters extinguished the blaze before any massive damage had been done. The evacuation lasted about an hour.
According to the department, the level three shaft is next to a cleaners’ room, which also stored cleaning material that was affected the fire.
“The structural damage is currently unknown. An assessment to verify that has commenced. Police and the fire department will continue to investigate the cause,” Mabona said.
“We confirm that no patient was affected by the smoke and they are all back in their wards. It is business as usual.”
The MEC of Health in Gauteng, Qedani Mahlangu, thanked all officials who assisted in moving the patients to a safe place and the firefighters.
Pretoria News