Maharashtra: Hospitals’ old power systems facing a huge load, say experts

Excessive load on old wires, use of mismatched circuit breakers and poor insulation are among the main causes for short circuits and fires in hospitals, say experts.

While big hospitals have full-fledged teams looking into electrical circuits, many small hospitals located in residential colonies tend to hook heavy equipment and gadgets to old wires, experts added. As the load of patients is high due to the pandemic, many of these nursing homes have added new gadgets and work round the clock.

The Virar hospital tragedy is the latest in a spate of fires that have engulfed Covid centres in the state and is a warning of the strain on health infrastructure that has been overstretched and burdened due to the pandemic. Electrical systems need to be regularly checked and updated to be able to take the growing load, and firefighting systems need to be tested from time to time to prevent such disasters.

TimesView

It is an established fact that 90% of fires in Mumbai region (fires are more in number during summer as electricity load is high) are due to short circuits.