Negligence may be root cause of fire, death at Sarawak hospital

Negligence might have led to a fire which resulted in a construction worker's death at the auditorium of a clinical research building under construction in the Sarawak General Hospital yesterday. Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof said the failure of the contractor and workers to comply with standard operating procedures and occupational safety specified at the work site might have led to the incident about 5pm yesterday. "We deeply regret the incident in which a worker succumbed to smoke inhalation," he said in a press conference after visiting the scene today. In the incident, Robust Prayttno, 35, an Indonesian immigrant, is believed to have died from suffocation while working on the ceiling of the auditorium. His three co-workers who were carrying out welding works in the auditorium managed to escape. Fadillah said the state fire and rescue department's forensics unit was conducting an investigation into the fire while the Sarawak Public Works Department, which was the agency supervising the RM35 million project, had set up its own team of investigators to assess the losses. The project's construction - expected to be completed by March-end - has been suspended, in accordance with instructions from the department of occupational safety and health.