Patients evacuated in hospital fire

BEKASI, West Java (JP): A fire broke out in a local public hospital yesterday which destroyed four rooms, a mini bus, 1.2 tons of rice and forced the evacuation of 150 patients, including several babies.

"Some of the patients were pushed in their beds while others were carried off by husbands and relatives into the street in front of the hospital," the head of nursing department, Nirmala, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

A hernia operation had to be postponed and some new patients were sent to a nearby hospital.

She said the hospital has 205 beds and that 75 percent of them were occupied when the fire broke out.

"But all them (the patients) have gone back to their rooms now," she said.

The head of the hospital's administration, Bambang Djati Santoso, said that a warehouse, a kitchen and two theaters were damaged by the fire.

A source at the Bekasi Police Precinct said that four carpenters sleeping near the warehouse were being questioned.

The cost of the blaze is estimated to be about Rp 100 million (US$42,550), not including the cost of damaged medical equipment which is still being calculated. (kod)