Hospital AWARD TO SISTER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 6

Hospital AWARD TO SISTER

Action During Fire

The annual fire-prevention award of the North Canterbury Hospital Board will be made to Sister J. A. Waldron, of ward 13A at the Christchurch Hospital, for starting to evacuate patients because of a fire in the north-east wing of the ward. This was decided by the board yesterday. About 3.10 p.m. on February 12, Nurse L. S. Wards, who was on duty in the ward, saw smoke coming through the floor-boards in the northeast wing, said the board’s fire officer (Mr W. A. Clarke), recommending the award. Nurse Wards immediately operated the fire alarms and reported to the ward sister, Sister Waldron.

“As this wing is a dead-end and the only way from it is into the ward corridor, and as the fire was between this corridor and the patients’ rooms, Sister Waldron instructed her staff to start moving the patients into the main corridor. Only a portion had been evacuated When the fire was brought under control.

•‘Nurse Wards is to be congratulated on her alertness, but the action she took is laid down in fire instructions. The instructions covering a necessary evacuation, however, do not detail any specific action. . . . The action taken by Sister Waldron showed initiative and intelligent thinking.”