Seventeen patients, including 11 children, were evacuated to safety after a fire broke out at Jengka Hospital, damaging the ceilings of its paediatric and women’s wards.
Maran district police chief Superintendent Wong Kim Wai said police were alerted to the incident at around 7pm, while the fire was believed to have started at about 6.50pm.
Thick smoke was seen engulfing the hospital building, with images of the incident later going viral on social media and raising concerns over the safety of patients.
Videos also showed hospital staff wheeling patients out of the building on hospital beds as firefighters rushed into the affected premises. The beds were later arranged along a hospital corridor.
Wong said the fire damaged parts of the ceiling and electrical wiring in both wards.
“Firefighters managed to put out the fire within 20 minutes. The fire is believed to have started in the ceiling of the paediatric and women’s wards,” he said in a statement today.
He said all 17 patients evacuated from the wards escaped unhurt, comprising six boys, five girls and six women.
Checks by firefighters found that about 10 per cent of the ceiling had been damaged.
“The cause of the fire and the losses incurred are still under investigation,” Wong said.
Meanwhile, a Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said 12 firefighters from the Jengka and Kuala Krau fire stations were deployed to bring the blaze under control.
