Fire at overcrowded CUH emergency department is a 'serious warning signal'
CUH described it as a small fire, and thanked its staff, the National Ambulance Service, and Cork City Fire Brigade for their quick response. Picture: Larry Cummins
A fire in Cork University Hospital’s (CUH) overcrowded emergency department (ED) has been described as “a serious warning signal” to the Government about the need to solve the overcrowding crisis.
Several patients had to be evacuated to a secure area, as the ED filled with smoke just after lunchtime.
Tragedy was averted when a quick-thinking paramedic grabbed a fire extinguisher and managed to put the fire out before firefighters arrived.
Several ambulances had to be diverted to the Mercy University Hospital until the area was declared safe just over an hour later.
CUH described it as a small fire, and thanked its staff, the National Ambulance Service, and Cork City Fire Brigade for their quick response.
According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), there were 55 people on trolleys in the ED on Wednesday morning waiting for admission to the hospital. It’s not clear how many were in the ED at the time of the fire.
The fire brigade praised the paramedic for his quick thinking and the hospital’s ED staff for implementing a swift and calm evacuation procedure.
Senior fire officers are due to meet HSE management today to discuss the incident, which is believed to be linked to “routine maintenance work”, and to discuss the hospital’s initial response to the fire, and what it plans to do next.
But concerns were raised last night about the fire safety risk at the ED amidst an overcrowding crisis, a week after it was confirmed that fire officers carried out an inspection of the overcrowded ED at University Hospital Limerick.
Solidarity TD for Cork North Central, Mick Barry, said he wants to know what is the maximum number of patients allowed in an ED before it presents a fire safety risk.
“Is the failure of the State to solve the now traditional January overcrowding creating conditions so dangerous that fire departments would be intervening in almost any other circumstance? ,” he said.
Firefighters ventilated the affected area and tested for gas, before declaring the ED safe for patients and staff to return at around 2.30pm.
No one was injured during the incident.
