Hospital lift fire causes evacuation

KUALA LUMPUR: Mohd Laub Hassan went to visit his grandfather at the Nerve Research Centre yesterday. But he was taken aback when he was not allowed to go up to the unit on the third floor of Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

"I go to the hospital about 1pm but security would not let me go up to see my grandfather.

"I managed to get up to the second floor and then took the stairs. When I looked through the door. I saw a commotion going on," said the 18-year-old.

That "commotion" was 50 patients and workers in the unit being evacuated after smoke filled the third floor of the building.

No injuries were reported, and the patients have been moved to other wards.

Federal Territory Fire and Rescue Department operations assistant director Md Ali Ismail said they received a call at 1.21pm and immediately sent a fire engine.

"The smoke had come form an unused lift on the ground floor of the hospital.

"Some paper and other rubbish in the lift shaft had caught fire sending smoke up to the third floor," he said, adding that there was no report of any damage.

A hospital spokesman said they will return to the ward once the smoke clears."

And Mohd Laud did manage to see his grandfather in the end, near the lift as he was being evacuated.

Source: NST newspaper

Pictures: Berita Minggu