Patient dies after fire breaks out at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital north of Pretoria

The fire that broke out at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital north of Pretoria in Gauteng Province, led to the death of a 35-year-old female patient, Gauteng department of health confirmed.

Kasi Voice News has learnt that the horrific incident happened on Monday night in the hospital’s female psychiatric unit, at around 18:44.

The emergency services at the City of Tshwane were notified of the incident and dispatched firefighting resources to the scene, media liaison officer Charles Mabaso shared with Kasi Voice News.

“Firefighters arrived at the scene to find that the hospital staff had already extinguished the fire in a single isolation ward using portable fire extinguishers,” says Mabaso.

Mabaso added that a woman patient, aged 35, sustained burns while inside the ward and tragically passed away.

Emergency medical team pronounced her deceased at the tragedy scene.

Nineteen other patients in the unit were safely evacuated and temporarily relocated to a different wing of the psychiatric department as a precautionary measure, and there were no injuries.

“The firefighters conducted positive pressured ventilation to rid the ward of extensive smoke,” Mabaso said.

The cause of the fire is unknown and Mabaso said the matter had been handed over to police for investigation.

“The scene was then handed over to the police services for further investigations as the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.”