MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) says 11 neonates on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Mandeville Regional Hospital in Manchester are safe following a minor fire at the facility on Friday.

In a release SRHA, which oversees public health-care services in Manchester, Clarendon, and St Elizabeth, said the fire occurred about 3:45 am when staff members were alerted by smoke coming from a ward which houses the NICU.Investigations revealed that smoke was coming from an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) device, which resulted in the fire. The fire department was called and the small fire extinguished.The health authority said staff members immediately removed the 11 neonates (newborns) and relocated them to an appropriate area of the paediatric ward. “Following an assessment, all newborns and staff members are safe,” the release said.

Chief executive officer at Mandeville Regional Hospital Alwyn Miller said a preliminary clean-up was done immediately after.

“We are not proposing to move the patients back into that space immediately; that will not happen until possibly next week at some point in time,” he said.“We are housing the children in the paediatric ward in a space where we have previously had our NICU; we will be using the ward until we are satisfied that we can return to the NICU. Prior to that time we will have to re-sanitise again before we can bring the children back into that space,” he added.