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THE SOUTH General Hospital in Naga City, southern Cebu, may reopen in two to three days after repairs on its electrical system are finished following last week?s fire.
?We are almost 100 percent finished. We are just waiting for officials from the fire station to inspect the hospital,? said Lani Arcenal, assistant hospital administrator.
?For now, we accept outpatients and outpatient laboratory (work),? she said.
The Oct. 29 fire was traced to the hospital?s power generator, which switched on automatically during a brownout.
Sparks from the generator kept in the basement ignited 3,000 liters of crude oil stored nearby.
While the fire was contained in the engineering department, it damaged the building?s electrical system.
Patients were safely transferred.
?They were transported to different hospitals of the patient?s choice,? said Arcenal, who clarified reports that the fire spread to the hospital?s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on the floor above the generator.
?It was just smoke that reached the ICU,? she said.
Fire officials earlier noted that the power generator should have been housed away from the hospital building to avoid a fire hazard.
FO1 Alvin Torion, administrative clerk of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Naga City, said the bureau has already notified the hospital about this safety precaution.
Fire Marshall Ismael Codilla of the BFP in Cebu City said that based on the 2008 revision of the Fire Code, which was approved in June this year, establishments are now required to call on the fire department and have a fire truck on standby outside in case generator sets initially fail to operate during a change of power supply.
Codilla also reminded establishments to have adequate fire protection equipment.
He advised them to invest in a good sprinkler system that is activated when smoke is detected. This is the first line of defense against a fire, he said.
He cautioned against substandard sprinkler systems.
He said the sprinkler system in the LGC Marketing building in Cebu City was destroyed by fire before it could function, leading to the building?s destruction.
?No water pipes feeding the sprinkler system lasted long enough to put out the fire,? Codilla said.
