Athens, April 6 (BNA) A fire in the COVID-19 ward of a hospital in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, resulted in the death of a patient and the serious injury of two.
The fire department said it has evacuated 34 patients from the COVID-19 ward at Papanicolaou Hospital. The fire was quickly put out, according to the Associated Press.
Authorities said four of the evacuated non-infected patients were already in serious condition due to the coronavirus, and were under tight monitoring. The fire department said the body of a patient was found on the second floor.
Many fatal fires in COVID-19 hospital wards in many countries have been linked to large amounts of oxygen attached to patients – which while not flammable causes the fires to burn faster and more intensely.
Health Minister Thanos Plevris said the cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Video footage from the site showed thick black smoke billowing from two windows in the facility’s basement, and firefighters climbing up the windows.
The danger was from supplying patients with oxygen. “It could have made the situation a lot worse,” Blevris told reporters outside the hospital after the fire was put out.
“The supply was quickly cut off and the fire department responded quickly,” he added.
He said other wards of the hospital were unaffected and COVID-19 patients were moved to other parts of the building and brought back to oxygen.
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