2 Apr 2019

Auckland, Northland hospitals riddled with fire risk

From Morning Report, 6:11 am on 2 April 2019

Documents show hospitals in Auckland and Northland are riddled with holes and gaps that can speed up the spread of fire. In one case Middlemore Hospital was warned in 2014 that part of its Manukau Superclinic was an 'extreme' risk to patients, but it did not get this fixed till early last year. Nor did it check for what turned out to be myriad other firestopping faults, both at Manukau and the main Middlemore site in Otahuhu, until the defects came to light when it was checking for leaks. RNZ asked a Wellington fire engineer - Kenneth Crawford of Pacific Consultants - to look through the Middlemore firestopping reports.