A patient at Limoges University Hospital died on Saturday following a fire that broke out overnight in the hospital that killed at least three people, the Haute-Vienne prefecture said. "One person injured in the fire died," said Bellac's sub-prefect, Françoise Slinger-Cecotti.
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This victim was among the three people initially reported injured in the fire: a 53-year-old man rescued "in absolute emergency" by firefighters and transferred to the burn unit of the Bordeaux University Hospital, and two other patients who were in "relative emergency" at midday, according to the prefecture. "A second person who was also hospitalized in the same ward also died, without it being known at the moment if he lost his life as a result of this fire or something else," the sub-prefect added. The Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, visited the scene.
Business continuity 'not affected'
At around 02:30 a.m., the fire broke out in "a patient's room, in the digestive surgery department" on the second floor of one of the buildings, the management said in a statement. The fire was quickly brought under control thanks to the intervention of the hospital's security team and about forty firefighters. The patients of the department affected by the fire have been transferred to another care department, according to the management of the CHU whose continuity of activity "is not affected".
The cause of the fire is not known at this stage. The premises are closed and are not accessible to the technical and scientific police due to the asbestos present in the building. "The investigation cannot start for the moment," the prefecture had previously said.