A transformer installed within the Cancer Unit of the Galle National Hospital caught fire around midday on Tuesday, briefly disrupting electricity supply before staff and city firefighters brought the blaze under control.
Hospital authorities disconnected power to the unit as a precaution after the transformer suddenly ignited, Newswire reported, citing staff who said the move was intended to protect patients and personnel from any cascading electrical hazard.
The Galle Municipal Council’s City Firefighting Unit responded alongside hospital employees and extinguished the fire before it could spread, according to both reports. The cause of the ignition has not yet been determined.
There were no reports of injuries to patients or staff. Ada Derana said the supply to the cancer unit was “temporarily disrupted” but did not provide a time for full restoration.
The Galle National Hospital is the principal tertiary-care facility in Southern Province and runs one of the country’s busiest oncology services outside Colombo. Sri Lanka’s hospital network has been the focus of significant investment recently, with a Rs. 12 billion 16-storey heart treatment centre planned at the National Hospital in Colombo this year. Transformer failures inside hospital complexes are an uncommon but high-stakes incident because critical-care equipment, ventilators and infusion pumps depend on uninterrupted power. Backup generation typically picks up the load during outages, although neither source confirmed whether the cancer unit’s standby supply engaged during Tuesday’s incident.
Hospital authorities have not released a statement on damage to the transformer or on when the unit’s mains supply would be restored.
