People gather at Bhubaneswar's SUM Hospital, where a major fire broke out on Monday evening.
People gather at Bhubaneswar’s SUM Hospital, where a major fire broke out on Monday evening.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — At least 19 people were killed and hundreds others injured when a major fire broke out at SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday evening.
“Some private hospitals and government-run Capital Hospital received the dead bodies. Those patients were shifted from SUM Hospital,” Khurda district collector Niranjan Sahoo said to the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed anguish+ at the loss of lives in the hospital.
Deeply anguished by the loss of lives in the hospital fire in Odisha. The tragedy is mind-numbing. My thoughts are with bereaved families.
Firefighters said the blaze began around 7:30 p.m. local time in the dialysis ward in the hospital’s second floor. While seven critical patients with ventilators were admitted to the dialysis ward, 11 patients were present in nearby ICU. “The patients might have died on the way to other hospitals. We are inquiring into the matter. We will also find out whether any patient died in SUM,” health secretary Arti Ahuja said.
The exact cause of the fire is still being investigated. “Prima facie, we suspect the fire occurred due to an electric short circuit in the dialysis ward,” DGP’s Benoy Behera said. The magnitude of the fire was so intense that the firefighters had a herculean task to rescue the patients amid thick smoke bellowing from all sides. “It was difficult to use the staircase. We had to carefully drop the patients by tying them with clothes,” said a fire service officer. At least ten fire tenders and 120 firefighters were mobilized to douse the inferno.
Health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said many patients are currently undergoing treatment in different hospitals. “We have mobilized adequate doctors for their treatment,” Nayak said.
“Soon after the fire mishap, we shifted all patients to safer places. We also broke open some windows to prevent suffocation of patients. Our own staffers were engaged to rescue the patients,” said the hospital’s deputy superintendent Basant Pati.
