Zottegem The has Wednesday afternoons burned in the psychiatric hospital in Velzeke in Zottegem. No one got hurt, but staff of the clinic and a team of the fire station Zottegem had a fifty patients evacuate. A sanitary block is by the fire completely destroyed. A branddeskundige should be the cause find out.
The fire broke out in ‘The Pilgrim’, the ontwenningsafdeling of the Psychiatric Centre Sint-Franciscus/The Pilgrim to the Penitentenlaan in Velzeke. That rehab clinic serves people who suffer from alcohol-, medication – or other drug problems. “The fire that raged in a toilet block, is fairly quickly identified and the personnel are very efficient responded”, praises director Marc Van Steertegem still happy.
Two floors vacated
“A member of staff saw smoke in the vicinity of the toilet on the ground floor and struck immediately alarm. Both on the ground floor and the first floor, we immediately all patients. It was about a fifty people. Who are all brought together in the sports hall on the other side of the street. The whole operation is very quietly expired. Of panic there is never been the case,” says the director.
Teams of the fire station of Zottegem were quickly on the spot and are involved locally entered. “The washroom is through the fire and completely destroyed. The damage is locally limited, but the smoke has, however, far from the corridors of the hospital disseminated. Because of this we have still more than an hour to wait to bring people back to the two housing sections to be able to bring,” says the director.
Parquet investigates cause
The cause of the short, but fierce fire is yet unknown. Fire and police did not immediately elements for the existence of the fire in the toilet can explain. It may be a short circuit, but also malicious intent is a possibility. “For now, we can this is not to say, because we simply do not know yet”, is the response Of Steertegem.
The public prosecutor’s office of East-Flanders, department Oudenaarde, sends a branddeskundige to the cause and circumstances of the fire to find out.
