Narrow escape for 127 patients as major fire breaks out in Cuttack Covid hospital

CUTTACK: A fire broke out at the Sadguru Covid hospital at Jagatpur, forcing evacuation of around 127 patients in an emergency action on Monday afternoon. There has been fortunately no loss of life nor any injury to the Covid-19 patients undergoing treatment in the facility.

The fire erupted in the intensive care unit (ICU) block located on the ground floor of the four-storied building at about 12.45 pm. The ICU had 24 critical Covid-19 patients.Soon, thick plumes of smoke engulfed the second and third floors where 103 patients were housed. Panicked and suffocated, some patients fell unconscious while others were seen running out to safety.

The fire reportedly broke out due to a short circuit in an air conditioner in the ICU.  The hospital authorities had immediately evacuated the 24 patients from the ICU, said Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani, who along with other senior officials including Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Range), Commissioner, Twin City Police and Commissioner, Cuttack Municipal Corporation had rushed to the spot on being informed of the mishap.

As many as 42 fire service personnel were pressed into fire control measures and rescue of patients from the premises. According to Managing Director of the hospital Dr Pradip Mohanty, there were 130 patients in the facility. While three of them were discharged few hours before the mishap, of the rest 127 patients,  24 were in ICU and two in ventilators. 

“Following a spark in air conditioner, we shut down the power supply and activated the fire extinguishing system. Though the fire was doused with sprinklers activated automatically, the smoke however started spreading rapidly. Our trained staff immediately broke the window panes to release the smoke to facilitate the evacuation process,” said Dr Mohanty, adding that the critical patients were immediately taken down and put on high flow of oxygen outside till they were shifted to other Covid hospitals. 

Restoration work is going in full swing and efforts are on to bring back the patients within two days, Dr Mohanty said.All the patients were shifted to other hospitals like Ashwini Covid hospital, Gopabandhu Ayurvedic College, SCB Medical College and Hospital and KIMS Covid hospital. The asymptomatic and mild patients have been shifted to the DRIEMS Covid Care Centre, Chayani informed.

The 150-bed hospital with 24 ICUs was set up about 20 days back. Sources said, it lacked a fire safety certificate. “Though the hospital authorities had applied for the NOC, the Fire Service department after inspecting the facility had asked them to address certain shortcomings to obtain the fire safety certificate,” said Chief Fire Officer Sukant Sethy. RDC Anil Samal has sought a report from Collector on the incident and instructed him to ensure that such type of mishap does not occur at any other Covid hospital.
Meanwhile, Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das has also ordered a probe into the incident and asked Additional Chief Secretary PK Mohapatra to submit the report.