Faulty AC unit triggers maternity ward evacuation

A man­u­fac­tur­er’s de­fect in a re­cent­ly in­stalled air-con­di­tion­ing unit at the Ma­ter­ni­ty Ward of the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (PoS­GH) has been iden­ti­fied as the cause of yes­ter­day’s evac­u­a­tion af­ter smoke trig­gered the build­ing’s fire alarm sys­tem.

The in­ci­dent prompt­ed an im­me­di­ate re­sponse from hos­pi­tal of­fi­cials, who evac­u­at­ed staff and pa­tients as a pre­cau­tion. Au­thor­i­ties lat­er con­firmed that the sit­u­a­tion was brought un­der con­trol quick­ly and that no in­juries were re­port­ed, in­clud­ing among new­borns in the Neona­tal In­ten­sive Care Unit (NICU).

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice (TTFS) re­ceived the call around noon and dis­patched fire ap­pli­ances from its Wright­son Road head­quar­ters. Up­on ar­rival, fire­fight­ers dis­cov­ered smoke em­a­nat­ing from a re­cent­ly in­stalled air-con­di­tion­ing unit on the build­ing’s third floor.