Panic, chaos as Vadodara Covid hospital ICU catches fire; none hurt

VADODARA: The state-run SSG Hospital in Vadodara witnessed major chaos and panic after fire broke out inside the Covid hospital on Tuesday evening.
According to preliminary reports, a short circuit caused the fire resulting in lot of smoke sending patients and their relatives panicking.
The ICU located on the first floor of the casualty/ trauma centre building, which has been converted into a Covid-19 hospital, caught fire.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported as all the patients were evacuated in the nick of time.
Officials said that there were 38 patients admitted inside the ICU unit.
Resident doctors and nursing staff started evacuating patients as fire tenders of Vadodara Fire and Emergency Services (VFES) and 108 GVK-EMRI emergency services were pressed into service.
“The fire started from a ventilator unit but thanks to the training imparted to the hospital staff that they themselves extinguished the blaze and started evacuating the patients,” said in-charge chief fire officer Parth Brahmbhatt.
“Since the room was closed, smoke got accumulated there,” he said. The power connection of the entire building was cut off to prevent spread of the short circuit through wires.
There was chaos outside the building as relatives of the patients had reached the spot and started inquiring about the whereabouts of their kin admitted in the ICU.
The patients who were moved out of the building on stretchers and beds with oxygen cylinders were being given treatment in the parking area opposite the building. Huge crowd gathered in the vicinity.
All ambulances of VFES and GVK-EMRI were kept on standby at the hospital.
“We have brought the fire under control and have also restored electricity of the building,” he said.
Vadodara district collector Shalini Agrawal said that the Covid patients will either be internally transferred or shifted to GMERS Medical College and Hospital at Gotri.
Senior IAS officer Dr Vinod Rao, who has been appointed as officer on special duty for Covid-19 had entered the building wearing PPE kit while political leaders too rushed to the government hospital.
All safe, some shifted to Gotri and Sumandeep
All the 38 patients who were undergoing treatment at the ICU located on the first floor of the building that caught fire are safe.
“Nobody has received any kind of injury. A majority of them have been shifted to second and third floor of the same building which also have ICU facilities,” said Dr Minoo Patel, advisor for Covid-19 at both SSG and Gotri Hospital.
“We have shifted a couple of patients to the Covid hospital at GMERS Medical College and Hospital at Gotri and 4-5 others to Sumandeep Hospital,” he said.