Thirteen COVID-19 patients die in hospital fire in Maharashtra's Palghar district

VIRAR: Thirteen COVID-19 patients died in a blaze at the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Friday, police said.

There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit, an official said.

The dead include five women and eight men.

TV visuals showed the smoke-filled ICU in a disarray after the blaze, with the ceiling falling off in some places, beds and other furniture strewn around and kin of the deceased wailing outside the hospital.

The fire broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar shortly after 3 am, an official said.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 am, he added.

There were 18 patients in the ICU when the fire broke out, the official said.

Five patients were rescued and shifted to other hospitals in the area, he added.

The other patients in the hospital were not affected as the damage was confined to the ICU, he added.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe into the tragedy, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.

Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said authorities should check if there was a fire safety audit of the hospital, which is over 50 km from Mumbai.

The tragedy comes two days after 22 COVID-19 patients who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen supply stopped suddenly due to a malfunction in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik.

District Disaster Control Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam told PTI that the Virar hospital fire was preceded by an explosion in the AC unit of the intensive care unit.

Relatives of the deceased reached the hospital soon after hearing of the incident and demanded that stringent action be taken against those responsible for the tragedy.

Ten infants were killed in a fire that broke out at a special newborn care unit of the Bhandara district hospital in Maharashtra on January 9.

Seventeen infants, aged one to three months, were admitted to the ward at the time of the tragedy.

A fire broke out in Mumbai's Dreams Mall, which housed a Covid-designated hospital on its third floor, in the intervening night of March 25-26.

The fire, which raged for over 40 hours, claimed nine lives, including those of patients on ventilator support.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday expressed his deepest condolences to the victims' families and appealed to the state government to provide all necessary assistance to them.

"Tragic news has been received from Vijay Vallabh COVID centre in Virar about the death of patients due to a fire. My deepest condolences to the families of the victims," Gandhi said on Telegram.

"I appeal to the State Govt and Congress workers to provide all necessary assistance," the former Congress chief said.

The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and  the Shiv Sena have a coalition government in Maharashtra.

A statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that Uddhav Thackeray spoke to the district authorities on learning about the fire incident.

He asked the authorities to shift the other patients elsewhere.

"Give priority to douse the fire completely and ensure the treatment of the remaining patients is not hampered," the statement quoting the chief minister said.

He said that Vijay Vallabh Hospital is a private facility and a probe should be conducted on whether the fire safety measures were being followed there.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said in a tweet, "The fire incident at Virar based Vijay Vallabh Hospital's ICU section has claimed 13 lives. It is a very unfortunate and painful incident. CM Thackeray has ordered in-depth inquiry into this accident."