The ugly spate of fire disasters over the past weeks seems to engulf Freetown city and provincial towns
with fear. No one knows when and where the next one will be. Even the sick and vulnerable are not spared.
Ward 4, a female surgical ward at Connaught Hospital which was refurbished by ZONTA club was ravaged by fire in the early morning hours of last Thursday at around 2:00am. Much to the terror and dismay of Patients and medical staff who remain bewildered at the cause of the fire. The Matron-in charge, Dominga Sogie- Thomas appeared perturbed at the sight of the scene and could barely speak. As a very dedicated woman who loves her job, she explained that she always has her bags packed ready for any emergency like this. She explained to this press that she received a call at about 2:15 from the nurse on duty to inform her about the incident and hastily made her way to the scene where flames had already engulfed the entire ward.
All she could do was to mobilize nurses to evacuate the patients from the blazing site whilst the police were steadily trying to control the frightened people and petty thieves who wanted to capitalize these peoples’ tragedy. The fire force bravely fought the blaze and eventually overcame it much to everyone’s’ relief. This was short-lived though for as soon as they left the scene they were called back.. The fire had risen up again this time stronger than before. According to sources, it is believed that one of the patients’ aunty saw the fire and quickly alarmed the sister in charge Madam Domingo . This immediately caused terror in the minds of the patients and everyone went haywire trying to escape for their lives. One of the patients and victim Juliana lamented that she lost everything, her medicines, personal property and cash. Also having problems with her neck she had to be helped to safety which was outside.
Yeimanga, a diabetic patient lost all her medicines which she cried were very expensive. This old woman had to be carried by her daughter as she had no use of her legs.
Some of the patients and nurses confirmed that a few days before, they put out some small flames in Ward 4 but did not really think much about it. According to the brave Fire Force this fire was as a result of poor electrical fittings. The fire emanated from a plug in the nurses’ room and quickly escalated, engulfing the entire ward. Indeed this accident could have been avoided with the right professional care shown but the victims don’t blame anybody, they are just glad to have their lives as this has not been the case with other fire incidents where people had lost their lives alongside property. Some government officials visited the scene.
To have 21 fire disasters in less than two weeks gives great cause for concern. Meanwhile investigations are on.
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