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Reports said today’s fire broke out at an operation theatre in its emergency and trauma ward on the first floor of the hospital.
Hospital staff, patients as well as visitors were ordered to evacuate the main building when smoke was spotted at 1.35pm.
Patients were seen being wheeled to safety in stretchers by nurses and other staff, a scene reminiscent of the chaos that erupted during yesterday’s blaze.
An unnamed staff memberwas quoted by the New Straits Times as saying that there were no surgeries taking place in the operation theatres today, as all surgery cases were transferred to other hospitals.
“The staff were there to clean up and tend to other matters,” he said.
The situation is said to be under control.
Yesterday, six patients died in the fire that broke out just before 9am at the hospital’s ICU.
The Fire and Rescue Department, in a tweet, said it believed sparks from an electrical point caused the fire.
The Star Online quoted Johor Baru (South) District Police Chief ACP Sulaiman Salleh as saying the second fire was triggered as the plug point was exposed to water in the operating theatre.
“The spark occurred around 1.50pm when water from cleaning work on the second floor splashed onto a plug point in the operation room on the first floor.
“The spark caused smoke to emit but no one was injured due to the quick action of the staff.”
Sulaiman said the operating theatre was now under renovation.
“We have closed down the main building for 24 hours due to security reasons,” he added.
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