The reason for the fire in Odisha hospital is not yet known. india news
Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: Twelve patients died on Monday in an electrical fire at a trauma unit of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Odisha. A hospital source said the fire broke out in the trauma ICU on the first floor after a small fire caused by an electrical spark was immediately noticed and extinguished. Till late Monday night, there was no clarity on whether the same spark or an unknown fault elsewhere was the source of the massive fire that spread through the ward and the two upper floors moments later. The fire service department reported a lag of more than 15 minutes between the initial warning signals and firefighters being alerted on the premises. Sudhanshu Sarangi, director general of fire services, said the department received a call at 2.58 am on emergency number 112. “Fire engines reached the spot within two minutes,” he said. Health Secretary S Ashwathi said 11 hospital staff were also among the injured. “They sustained injuries while helping in rescue and evacuation of patients. They are all out of danger,” he said. Niranjan Swain of Kendrapara said, “My sister-in-law Maneka Raut, 54, was recovering after suffering a head injury due to a fall on March 1. She was expected to come out of the ICU this week. Who would have thought that something like this would happen.”
Ghanshyam Behera of Daspalla stood outside the hospital building hours after the fire, looking distraught at the enormity of the tragedy. “My father had met with an accident and was undergoing treatment in the third-floor ward when I heard screaming. Within moments, a cloud of black smoke engulfed the ward. I lifted my father on my shoulders and ran outside,” he said. Since then, Ghanshyam’s father Jadumani has been shifted to the Orthopedic ICU. Sudipta Nayak from Bhadrak spent hours trying to locate her 17-year-old cousin, who was in the trauma ICU. “She was on ventilator support for the last eight days due to kidney disease and respiratory complications,” Sudipta said. In the morning, the security guards asked the teen’s mother Sumathi to sign some papers, saying that her niece was also among the dead. “I was shocked to hear this and started searching for the body. It is now evening and I still haven’t found my cousin,” Sudipta told TOI. The last such hospital fire tragedy in Odisha occurred in October 2016 at the private IMS and SUM hospital in Bhubaneswar. SCB Medical College has been facing heat in recent years for allegedly crumbling infrastructure amid plans to upgrade it to an “AIIMS Plus” institute.
