Around 200 patients were safely evacuated from the wards and intensive care units (ICUs) of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) after a fire broke out in the hospital's main building in Ermita, Manila on Wednesday afternoon, March 13.
Father Marlito Ocon of the PGH Chaplaincy said on his social media account that the affected patients were immediately evacuated from Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as from the medical and central ICUs.
He added that many of them were intubated.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) reported that no one was injured.
The BFP said the fire started in the mid-floor portion of an audio-visual room of the Medicine Department.
It added that the fire was raised to the first alarm at 3:08 p.m. and escalated to the second alarm at 3:11 p.m.
The firefighters put the fire under control at around 3:45 p.m. and finally extinguished at around 4:30 p.m.
Arson investigators said that they are still investigating the cause of the fire.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health's (DOH) Health Emergency Management Bureau (HEMB) immediately assisted in transferring the affected patients to different DOH hospitals.
DOH added that it alerted all of its Metro Manila hospitals to receive transferred patients from the PGH.
Read more: https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/13/up-pgh-patients-transferred-following-fire-incident