By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Life Chatsmed Gardens Hospital had to be evacuated after wards were gutted by fire in the early hours of Sunday, 5 June 2022.
Emergency services, including eThekwini Fire Department, Blue Security, Netcare 911 and Emer-G-Med services, were called out in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Emer-G-Med spokesperson Kyle van Reenen says one of those evacuated was an ICU patient.
“The patient was airlifted with the assistance of Netcare 911 through to a Life healthcare facility, whilst the remaining eight patients were transferred by ambulances to the various hospitals to ensure their further care.”
Van Reenen says the section of the hospital that caught fire suffered severe damage.
“While I can confirm at the moment that one of the wards was severely gutted by a blaze and the hospital was evacuated through the night. No injuries were sustained from the blaze itself.
“Each patient that was transferred were already in hospital receiving care.”
On Monday, this week, patients at the Steve Biko Academic facility had to be moved from their wards due to a fire that broke out.
A number of temporary structures – including storage areas, isolation units, and triage tents – were damaged by the blaze.
In a separate incident, the Western Cape authorities are also probing the cause of a blaze at Vredendal Hospital.
The provincial health department said that staff and patients had been temporarily evacuated when a fire broke out at the facility.