Around 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, smoke was spotted emitting from an electrical room on the third floor medical-surgical unit of the Guam Memorial Hospital.

A power fluctuation had triggered a small fire in a breaker unit.

“We contained it, the Facility and Maintenance people came, and we made sure that all the patient rooms were closed so that the smoke doesn’t go into their rooms,” said GMH Administrator Lilian Posadas.

Almost simultaneously, a motor tied to the hospital’s HVAC system failed on the fourth floor pediatric unit, sparking yet another fire, filling the unit with smoke, and forcing an evacuation.

“We had to immediately make sure that we evacuated those pediatric patients away from that area for their safety. Particularly because a few of them were on oxygen,” added Posadas. 

By 3 p.m., the Guam Fire Department had cleared the building and patients were able to return to their rooms by 6 p.m.

“We’re back to normal, but the concern is that it can happen again. We don’t want it to be a major electrical fire,” said Posadas. “We’ve been saying that we need to replace that electrical distribution panel, which is the main power source for the whole hospital.”

That panel has been in service since the late 1980s and is just one piece of GMH’s aging system that Posadas says leaves the hospital vulnerable unless significant investments are made.

Amendments to the Fiscal Year 2026 budget now put GMH’s allocation at about $60.9 million, short of the $82 million administrators say are needed.

Senator Therese Terlaje issued a statement on the shortcoming saying, “How do we expect GMH to succeed if we cannot give them the tools to fix these problems?"

And in a direct letter to the administration, Speaker Frank Blas Jr. and Senator Sabrina Salas Matanane described the situation as “a catastrophe warranting a state of emergency.”

They write, “...our only civilian public hospital -- is unraveling before our eyes. Its walls are crumbling, its electrical and communications systems failing, fires are igniting, HVACs shutting down, and its shelves dangerously bare. The very institution meant to heal our people is itself in need of resuscitation.”

In addition, Posadas says abandoning GMH while waiting for the Mangilao hospital to be complete is not an option.

“What if something happens to this hospital? Where are patients going to go? We’re fortunate that we have GRMC, but they also have a limited capacity, so we still need to fund this hospital,” said Posadas. 

Today, acting Governor Josh Tenorio and Salas Matanane visited GMH, Tenorio assured hospital leadership that Adelup will help support immediate needs and long-term fixes.

So while the electrical fires are out, Tuesday underscores a larger challenge: GMH finally seeing commitments to improvement come to fruition.