,MNO2603 Assignment 3 (COMPLETE ANSWERS)
Semester 2 2024 - DUE 10 September 2024 ; 100%
TRUSTED Complete, trusted solutions and explanations.
In Focus: What the Charlotte Maxeke fire tells us about health
and safety in Gauteng hospitals Just weeks before a fire tore
through parts of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg on
16 April, a fire safety audit at the hospital was signed off and in
March a hospital fire and safety team met, according to the
Gauteng Department of Health. Yet Kwara Kekana,
spokesperson for Gauteng Health also confirmed in responses to
questions from Spotlight that “the smoke doors are not used as
the magnetic system on the doors was no longer effective and
they were recommissioned”. Smoke doors are used to prevent
the spread of smoke in a building when there is a fire. She also
confirmed that fire hydrant couplings were not compatible with
the fire hoses on Johannesburg Fire Service fire engines because
“some had been stolen”. Spotlight has requested, but not
received a copy of the fire audit/ inspection report from the
Gauteng Health Department, the Department of Infrastructure
and Development, and the City of Joburg’s Fire Services. Fire
compliance failures Two senior firefighters from the City of
Johannesburg who spoke to Spotlight, say the two failings
(mentioned by Kekana above) alone would sink a basic
inspection or compliance audit. It was also not just the fire doors
and the hydrant couplings that were faulty at Charlotte Maxeke.
They say firefighters were not given building and floor plans of
the hospital’s emergency exit plan when they arrived on the
scene the day of the fire on April 16. The emergency exit plan is
, essential for those needing to enter a burning building. Smoke
detection systems, fire alarms, sprinkler systems, and the
mechanisms that would have triggered the magnetic smoke
doors were also not in working condition. There was also water
flow and low pressure to the hydrants besides non-compatible
hose couplings. The two men asked to have their identities
withheld. MNO2603 ASSESSMENT 3 2024 6 The fire at
Charlotte Maxeke Hospital on 16 April marks the fourth in six
years at public health facilities in Gauteng. In February this year,
a fire broke out at Carletonville Hospital, in May 2019 there was
a fire at Bheki Mlangeni Hospital in Soweto, and Tambo
Memorial Hospital in Boksburg in May 2015. The fire in
September 2018 devastated a provincial health department’s
head office in the Bank of Lisbon building in the Joburg inner
city. That blaze claimed the lives of three firefighters. “These
are politicians, they are telling lies and doing cover-ups – they
must show you that inspection report for Charlotte Maxeke
because they are sending us into these places to die. “With fire
doors, we call these lifesavers because they can help you trap a
fire – these should have been there,” says *Nathi, who has been
in the fire services for 14 years. Fire hazards in hospitals and
other public buildings throughout the city are widespread.
*Richard, who has been with the Joburg fire service for 22 years
says it ranges from lifts that have not been serviced for years;
fire escapes that are obstructed and regularly used for makeshift
storage and dumping space; fire extinguishers gathering dust or
used as door stops and facility health and safety committees who
are slack on fire safety compliance if they meet at all. A fire
service ‘in shambles’ Added to this, Nathi and Richard say their
