Jabalpur: Eight people, including four patients, were charred to death and five others were injured in a major fire that broke out at a private hospital here on Monday afternoon.
Jabalpur Collector Dr Ilayaraja T said four patients, a caregiver and three staffers of the facility, housed in a ground-plus-three-storey building, died in the fire. The fire was doused by late evening.
Of the five injured, two are in critical condition in the ICU of the Government Medical College in Jabalpur.
Dr Ilayaraja said evacuation of patients and others from the 30-bed New Life Multi-speciality Hospital near Damoh Naka under Gohalpur police station had been completed and no one is trapped in the building.
There were at least 20 people in the hospital when the blaze started at 2.30 pm. Superintendent of Police Siddharth Bahuguna said an electrical short circuit appears to have caused the blaze.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan expressed grief at the tragedy and announced Rs5 lakh as compensation for the family of each of those killed and Rs50,000 to each injured person.
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