Zottegem Staff of the General Hospital Sint-Elisabeth Zottegem, there was plenty of work to do of that the patients today back to their room, after the fire that night, has raged. “The damage is limited, but we have a lot of work with brushing and ventilate. Only if all of something is gone, may the patients back,” says general manager Frank Verbeke.
37 patients were last night evacuated to the day hospital after a fire. “It was an electrical fire, which at a quarter past two was on the fourth floor,” says Frank Verbeke, director general of the hospital. “In a technical local was a voedselverwarmer to load. In that section, there will apparently lead to a short circuit, which is a large smoke haze has caused. Because of that technical space, between two wards, the smoke through the two-course spread,” explains Verbeke.
In less than half an hour evacuated
The evacuation of the 37 patients went remarkably smoothly: in less than a half hour were the two wards completely cleared. Most of the patients were taken to the neighbouring day hospital, that night leegstaat.
“Everything is in a calm manner can happen. After we first have our own internal emergency plan in force, and our own blusteam though the first action had taken, also the fire brigade arrived. Also the medical emergency plan and the municipal emergency plan were promulgated, in which the command was taken over by the municipal commandocel. That has all worked well. We had many helping hands in the decisions and everyone knew very well what he or she had to do. There is never any panic.”
