A patient in the pulmonary clinic of the Papanikolaou Hospital in Thessaloniki died and two were injured after a fire broke out on Wednesday morning.
The fire broke out at the ward dedicated to Covid-19 cases. It it was put out in half an hour without spreading elsewhere, according to the Fire Brigade chief of Thessaloniki Konstantinos Dadoudis. Initially, hospital guards had unsuccessfully tired to put it out with fire extinguishers, but the smoke prevented them from entering the wards.
As he told told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), “The fire spread very quickly within the ICU, which means there was a lot of flammable material that fed the fire.” Thirty fire fighters and 11 fire engines were operating to put out the fire.
The two injured patients were moved elsewhere, with one of them placed on a ventilator in an ICU at the hospital, while the clinic staff helped move 35 patients to other wings. The chief of Hellenic Armed Forces and the National Defense Ministry have also placed the 424 General Army Hospital on standby.
The Fire Brigade is examining the causes of the fire.
Health Minister Thanos Plevris, Alternate Health Minister Mina Gaga and the emergency ambulance service’s (EKAV) head, Nikos Papaefstathiou, were on their way to Thessaloniki.
SOURCE; AMNA