Raging Fire Guts Top Zimbabwe Hospital Staff Quarters
“We have just been woken up to come and attend to this terrible fire. We have never seen such a fire which has caused extensive damage to some of our staff quarters here. We are on the ground right now and the fire brigade is trying to extinguish the fire."
MARYLAND — Raging Fire Destroys Zimbabwe’s Hospital Staff Quarters With Property Worth Hundreds of Dollars A raging fire almost razed to the ground staff quarters with property worth hundreds of dollars at one of Zimbabwe’s biggest referral hospitals in Bulawayo on Wednesday evening. According to the hospital’s acting chief executive, Professor Solwayo Ngwenya, the local authority’s Fire Brigade is tackling the inferno in which there are uncertainties over causalities. “We have just been woken up to come and attend to this terrible fire. We have never seen such a fire which has caused extensive damage to some of our staff quarters here. We are on the ground right now and the fire brigade is trying to extinguish the fire. It seems as if people evacuated the affected buildings when the fire started. Nobody is inside the building but we don’t know yet if someone was trapped inside. We are trying to find details on this fire.” Professor Ngwenya said doctors, nurses and other staff members have been left homeless. “We will assess the damage in the morning but we think that it’s running into hundreds of thousands of United States dollars.” Hundreds of patients drawn from at least five provinces are referred to Mpilo Hospital annually, making it the biggest referral health center in the south-western part of Zimbabwe. According to its website, the Mpilo is a 1,000-bedded hospital, which is a major paternal center which serves Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Matabeleland North and South, Midlands and Masvingo Provinces. It is also a teaching hospital for the National University of Science and Technology, and has strong links with the University of Zimbabwe and several other academic institutions. Mpilo Hospital employs over 2,300 workers.