A small section in the laundry area of the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, in Soweto, has been affected by a fire. Johannesburg Emergency Services says the fire was put out before they arrived.

It comes at a time when Gauteng is seeing a steep rise in COVID-19 infections and is quickly running out of space to admit patients.

Two months ago, the Charlotte Maxeke hospital was also ravaged by fire.

In the video below Charlotte Maxeke Hospital fire brings safety of government buildings back to the spotlight:

The Health Department says in a statement that the fire has been contained. It says the small fire broke out early Sunday morning in the one of the back offices of the laundry area of the hospital.

“The office included a small laundry storeroom, used to store laundry which a portion was unfortunately burnt. No system and laundry machines were affected by the fire, and no one got injured,” the department says.

However, the department says the fire did not impact clinical and laundry services in the hospital.

“The fire was thankfully contained by the CHBAH team who were onsite, using fire extinguishers. The City of Johannesburg Fire was called and has since left the site, after assessing the situation and confirming that the fire was completely extinguished,” the department says further.

It is believed that the fire was caused by a heater, but further investigations are expected to be conducted to determine the cause of the fire.