MNO2603 Assignment 3
Semester 2 2024 - DUE 10
September 2024
QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
, MNO2603 Assignment 3 Semester 2 2024 - DUE 10 September 2024
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
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