Ventilator catches fire while attached to patient at KK hospital

 

A ventilator at the High Dependency Unit (HDU) of Hospital Queen Elizabeth II in Kota Kinabalu caught fire this afternoon, while it was in use by a patient.

Malaysiakini understands that nurses promptly doused the fire with an extinguisher and turned off the oxygen supply to avoid an explosion.

When the local Fire and Rescue Department arrived, the emergency had been averted. There were no injuries or deaths.

When contacted, Sabah Fire and Rescue Department chief Kamarul Zaman Malik Abdullah confirmed the incident.

"It was only a small fire involving a ventilator machine. There was no structural (damage)," he said.

It is learnt that the ventilator that caught fire is an older unit. 

This is believed to be the second public hospital fire reported this year.

In June, the patients at Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) in Johor Bahru were evacuated when a fire broke out in a ward.

The fire reportedly started near a bed in the ward and quickly spread to the ceiling.

No deaths or injuries were reported.

In 2016, six patients died in a fire at the HSA, caused by an electrical arc, coupled with the presence of gases rich in oxygen in the ceiling space above the storage room.

According to the declassified findings of an inquiry into the fire, this was likely due to a leakage in the gas piping system. - Mkini