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Major Hospital Fire in Saint Lucia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2021

Charles Greenidge
Affiliation:
St. Jude Hospital, Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, West Indies
Shamir O. Cawich*
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, Port of Spain General Hospital, Trinidad and Tobago
Richard Burt
Affiliation:
St. Jude Hospital, Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, West Indies
Tashina Francis
Affiliation:
St. Jude Hospital, Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, West Indies
*
Correspondence: Professor Shamir Cawich University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago E-mail: socawich@hotmail.com

Abstract

This paper provides a field report on a hospital fire at the St. Jude hospital in the Eastern Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia. The hospital was completely destroyed by the fire and three deaths were recorded. This paper analyses the emergency response to this hospital fire and discusses the lessons learned from this experience. This is a valuable lesion for developing countries in the Caribbean, especially since there have been four hospital fires reported in the Caribbean within the past decade.

Type
Field Report
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine

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