2 die in Telangana after fire breaks out in private hospital

Two patients died when fire broke out, reportedly due to leakage of an oxygen cylinder in the third floor of a private hospital in Warangal city of Telangana on Monday evening. 

The incident took place at around 6 pm at Rohini Hospitals in Hanamkonda area. The doctors were performing a surgery in the operation theatre, where the leakage of gas reportedly took place. 

Jetty Kumaraswamy, who was undergoing surgery died on the operation table itself, supposedly due to suffocation, while another patient Mallamma died in the state-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) hospital, where she was shifted soon after the accident. 

Initial reports said several other patients received injuries in the mishap, the police said there were no injuries. “There were 199 patients in the hospital at the time of mishap and we shifted all of them to six other hospitals in the city. They are all safe,” Warangal commissioner of police G Sudheer Babu told Hindustan Times. 

He said the exact cause of the accident was not known. “Preliminary inquiries revealed that there was a leakage of oxygen cylinder which caused fire. There were also reports of breaking of window panes on the third floor. Thick smoke emanated from the floor. We rushed fire tenders to the hospital immediately and extinguished the fire,” he said. “What caused the death of the patients is yet to be ascertained.” 

Deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari and Warangal (Urban) Collector Kata Amrapali visited the hospital and supervised the shifting of patients to other hospitals.