Another fire detected at Charlotte Maxeke, one year after first blaze

The Gauteng Department of Health has confirmed that a fire was detected at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital’s unused P2 parking bay.

The blaze has since been brought under control and patient care remains unaffected.

“Upon assessment of the situation clinicians on site, together with the facility’s head of disaster, made a call that the situation did not warrant for patients to be evacuated as the smoke from the fire was not too thick or high risk for inhalation,” said the Gauteng Health Department in a statement.

Late on Tuesday night (05 July), security personnel at the Charlotte Maxeke hospital reported that there was smoke that seemed to be coming from one of the structures.

City of Joburg firefighters were dispatched to the scene and managed to contain the fire which was confined to a small section of the level two parking.

The Hillbrow SAPS also went on site after the matter was reported to them.

“Level two parking is one of the areas that was affected by the April 2021 fire and is currently underprops and not accessible to the public or staff except for construction people,” explained the health department.

Services at the hospital are continuing as normal.

Second fire at the hospital in over a year

“The status quo is currently being closely monitored by the multidisciplinary team that is on-site to further assess the situation. The cause of the fire is under investigation.”

The occurrence of this fire is concerning, especially since parts of the hospital caught fire in April last year, forcing it to close.

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Patients were referred to other hospitals such as Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and Bertha Gxowa Hospital, which were already overburdened with patients.

In fact, the situation at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital was so dire that management at had asked the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers for help with repairs in order to speed up the resumption of health services.

Four months after the first fire, the health department said it needed more than R1 billion to fix the fire-ravaged hospital.

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