The Accident and Emergency Unit of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan was yesterday gutted by fire destroying the unit’s
central air conditioning systems and other equipment.
According to eye-witnesses, the fire started at about 4:15pm at the Medical Store Casualty Unit and was caused by a gas explosion from the central air condition.
It took the intervention of the University of Ibadan (UI) fire truck and the Oyo State Fire Services to extinguish the fire at about 5pm.
There were no report of any casualty but the incident caused chaos in the hospital and patients were evacuated to nearby facilities.
The Chief Medical Director of UCH, Prof. Temitope Alonge, while inspecting the damaged facilities, gave a thumbs up for the worker’s intervention to dowse the fire, he however, listed the ceiling, the roofing, mattresses, some equipment and the central air conditions as the major damages.
Prof. Alonge said the hospital has made arrangements to be temporarily attending to emergencies at the general out-patients department.
“I was at the second floor of the theatre complex building when I heard shout of people crying for help and smokes coming out of the ward. I came around immediately to help.
“What I understood that happened was that, earlier in the day, the head of electrical department noticed that the solar panel switch had a fault and it triggered a spark and they attended to it,” he said.
