KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25— Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam today announced the setting up of a special committee to investigate the fire incident at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital (HSA) in Johor Baru, which claimed six lives.
In a statement today, Dr Subramaniam said that it is still too early to deduce the cause of the fire at the hospital today morning.
“The Ministry of Health will go to the bottom of the HSA fire by appointing a special committee of related agencies and experts to investigate the incident thoroughly.
“It is too early to speculate on the cause of the fire. We are informed that the rapidity of the spread of the fire and huge columns of smoke hindered rescue efforts,” he said, also expressing condolences to the families of the deceased.
Firemen recovered seven people from the hospital after a fire broke out at its highest floor.
The Fire and Rescue Department tweeted that one person survived after being trapped in the hospital fire while the other six died.
Police later said the sole survivor was a man who had suffered extensive burns to 80 per cent of his body. The other six who perished were all patients at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in their 50s. Four were women while the other two deceased were men.
Faulty wiring in the building that housed the ICU is suspected to have sparked the fire.
“As of now, as of our initial investigation, is that it’s from wiring,” Southern Johor Baru district police chief Assistant Commissioner Sulaiman Salleh told a news conference that was shown on the website of Malay daily Harian Metro.
The fire is said to have broken out about 9am. National news agency Bernama cited the senior policeman saying 294 patients and 193 hospital staff in the building were affected.
The Fire and Rescue Department deployed 10 trucks and 166 firefighters to the hospital to battle the blaze.
