Patients in wards at Rumphi district hospital were swiftly evacuated on Saturday after a raging fire gutted the hospital.

The fire razed through the hospital's pharmacy wing, destroying a substantial amount of medicine in the process.

As a precautionary measure, all patients from the hospital wards were hurriedly evacuated.

District Commissioner for Rumphi, Emmanuel Bulukutu said investigations were underway to establish the cause of the fire accident.

"So far we have not valued the extent of the loss but a substantial amount of drugs have been destroyed, " said Bulukutu.

A team of fire fighters from Mzuzu City has arrived at the hospital and managed to contain it.

The fire extinguishers were called from Mzuzu City because Rumphi District does not have fire extinguishing equipment.

It took two hours before the fire extinguishing team arrived.

Volunteers were fetching water in buckets to extinguishe the fire before the team arrived from Mzuzu City which is 80 Kilometres away from Rumphi District.

Authorities are working on quantifying the cost of damage as a result of fire that has gutted a building housing the pharmacy department at Rumphi district hospital.