PETALING JAYA: Firefighters involved in putting out the blaze at Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru yesterday received praised from their superior for their quick action in handling the crisis.
Its director Othman Abdullahin reportedly said the fire was contained about 45 minutes after his men's arrival at the scene, following a distress call at 8.56am.
“Putting out the fire was manageable, but rescuing the critically ill victims was the toughest part of operations.
“Once the fire caught onto the mattresses, it spread rapidly and the smoke became very thick, impeding vision. It was hard for firemen to see anything, let alone locate the patients,” he told Malay Mail Online.
Othman said his men had to take extreme caution while evacuating patients alongside medical equipment that they were hooked to.
He said the firefighters were divided into groups, some rescuing the victims while others concentrated on putting out the fire.
There were 160 people involved in the operations and 10 fire trucks at the scene.
Othman’s deputy, Mohd Rizal Buang, who was one of the first to arrive, spoke of the screams and panic on the second floor of the hospital where the fire had broken out.
“As soon as we reached the affected area via the windows, we could hear screams and saw people running back and forth trying to escape the fire.
“We ordered the staff and patients to break all the windows to ventilate the building as it was so full of smoke. We could hardly see what was in front of us,” Rizal reportedly said.
He had managed to push a stretcher with a badly burnt victim on it out of the ICU.
Rizal also stressed that attempting to get people out of the ICU was a major task as the fire in the south wing (ICU area) was right at the doorway, which meant patients and medical staff were trapped inside.
“My focus was to send out as many people as I could from the affected area to safety, which in this case is outside the ward.
Yesterday, a huge fire tore through the intensive care unit of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital, killing six people and injuring four in the country's worst hospital fire.
The fire, which firefighters said could have started from the ICU's treatment room, took only minutes to spread to the ICU ward, which was housing seven patients and 10 personnel.