Jaipur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed sorrow at the death of six patients in the massive fire that broke out at the trauma ICU of Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital late on Sunday night. Five patients were injured in the incident.
The police said the exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined, though a short circuit is suspected.
“At first glance, it appears to be a short circuit, but the final cause will only be determined after the FSL investigation,” Biju George Joseph, commissioner of police, Jaipur, told ANI.
The news agency has also quoted SMS Hospital Trauma Centre in-charge Anurag Dhakad as saying that the fire started in the trauma ICU on the second floor and spread quickly, releasing toxic gases.
“Our trauma centre has two ICUs on the second floor: a trauma ICU and a semi-ICU. We had 24 patients there; 11 in the trauma ICU and 13 in the semi-ICU. A short circuit occurred in the trauma ICU, and the fire spread rapidly, releasing toxic gases,” he said.
He also said that most of the patients in the ICU were comatose. “Our trauma centre team, our nursing officers, and ward boys, immediately rescued them on trolleys and brought as many patients as we could out of the ICU and shifted them to another location. Six of those patients were very critical; we tried very hard to revive them with CPR, but they couldn’t be saved,” he said.
Two of the deceased were women and four men. Five patients are still critical. “There were 24 that we evacuated: 11 in the trauma ICU and 13 in the adjacent ICU,” Dhakad said.
Rescuers said that the hospital lacked basic fire control measures such as fire extinguishers.
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