A fire of unknown origin that started yesterday afternoon in a storage room of the COVID-19 hospital at Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara was successful contained while the contents of the room were damaged.
According to the Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham, the Guyana Fire Service received a call around 14.50 hours about a fire at the COVID-19 hospital and three tenders from the Campbeville, Alberttown and Central fire stations responded. When firefighters arrived on the scene, there was smoke and flames emanating from the room.
The firefighters were able to contain the fire in the room. Wickham noted that investigations are still ongoing to determine the cause of the fire. He also stated that as a result of the fire, some items in the room were damaged but couldn’t say what they were.
When Stabroek News visited the hospital at around 3:37 pm the fire had already been extinguished. However, a guard attached to RK’s Security Services told the Sunday Stabroek that around 2.45 pm, another security officer observed that smoke was coming from the storage room situated below the tuberculosis ward. An alarm was raised and everyone was instructed to exit the building.
A nurse took a fire extinguisher and broke the window of the sealed storage room which contained medical supplies for the hospital in an attempt to extinguish the fire. Flames had already begun to spread to the boxes that contained medical supplies which resulted in some
oxygen masks being burnt.
The nurse was unsuccessful in putting the fire out. However, by this time, firefighters had arrived on the scene and they managed to put out the fire.
The exact cause of the fire is currently unknown.
