Charlotte Maxeke Hospital: 400 Patients Evacuated and Temporarily Shut Down After Fire
- Charlotte Maxeke Hospital caught alight and hundreds of patients had to be evacuated
- The cause of the fire is not known and firefighters battled to get the fire under control
- Part of the third floor parking garage collapsed in the inferno compounded the challenges faced by the emergency personal
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A fire has ripped through the Charlotte Maxeke hospital on Friday night and as a result, patients were evacuated.
David Makhuru, Premier of Gauteng, has declared that the hospital will shut down.
400 patients were evacuated following the blaze, 270 patients are still in the hospital awaiting their evacuation. The patients have been distributed to other hospitals throughout South Africa according to IOL.
Source: Twitter
Parts of the third-floor parking collapsed due to the raging inferno and firefighters battled to get the blaze under control.
The cause for the fire is not known at this point.
During the chaos, criminal elements took advantage of the situation and the police reported that at least two cars were stolen.
The firefighters were able to get the inferno under control but 12 hours later the fire reignited and had to be extinguished again.
According to News24, besides the patients, medical equipment, PPE and medicines were also saved from the blaze.
"Premier @David_Makhura giving an update on the fire at the #CharlotteMaxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. “The fire has been contained but we have to, unfortunately, shutdown the hospital to ensure that we don’t put the patients and staff at risk”."
Earlier, Briefly News reported that the last thing the country and it's already ailing power supply company Eskom needed was for one of its power plants to catch fire - unfortunately, this is exactly what happened this Friday afternoon.
According to various clips that have been circulating on social media, a conveyer belt at Eskom's Kendal Power Station in Mpumalanga caught fire and caused an understandable wave of fear and disaster in the area.
Following clips of the video being shared on Twitter, Eskom released a statement to assure locals that power delivery will not be affected by the fire. According to the power utility company, the conveyer belt will be replaced. They also reported that there were no injuries as a result of the fire.
Earlier Briefly News reported that Brakpan residents have been left traumatised after a raging fire burnt down nine shops early this Friday morning. According to reports, the cause of the deadly blaze on Kitzinger Street in the Brakpan CBD is unknown.
The fire also managed to burn a part of a residential flat down, leaving some residents desperate and destitute without a home. A part of a hotel nearby the shops also received some damage as a result of the fire.
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Source: Briefly News
