Ujjain: District collector, on Monday constituted a four-member committee to examine the cause of the inferno at Patidar Hospital which occurred on Sunday.
The panel comprises Ujjain SDM Govind Dubey, CSP Madhav Nagar Hemlata Agarwal, FSL officer Preeti Gaikwad and Ujjain Municipal Corporation’s fire officer Ajay Singh Rajput.
The panel will report on whether the compliance with fire safety norms and other guidelines for the operation of hospital, was ensured by the management of Patidar Hospital.
Meanwhile, Patidar Hospital management has submitted before Madhav Nagar police that the fire broke out due to short circuit in the isolation ward of the hospital where corona patients were admitted.
An eyewitness alleged that as soon as the fire broke out the staff fled from the ward, leaving the patients on their own. His mother and wife were admitted at the ward, added the eyewitness.
His mother has sustained burn in the incident and is now under treatment at a health facility in Indore, he said.
All patients who were under treatment at the Patidar Hospital were shifted and currently no patient is admitted there,.
The isolation ward was full gutted in the incident and has been sealed.
The entire incident brought to fore the fact that the hospital drastically lacked the fire fighting equipment. Moreover, the equipments on the premises were found to be in poor concision.
A total of 80 patients were admitted and treated at the four-storey Patidar Hospital on Sunday. Their family members were also on the hospital premises.
When the fire broke out at noon, a search was launched to find the fire extinguishers. Four to five extinguishers which were available at the hospital proved to be inadequate to control the fire.
Moreover, the fire hydrant line which was installed in the building, too, was found to be redundant. So the fire took a terrible turn and it could be controlled only due to the arrival of fire brigade.
According to CMHO Dr Mahaveer Khandelwal, two women patients who got scorched in the incident were rushed to Indore for treatment. Condition of one of them continues to be critical.
On Sunday a fire broke out the isolation ward of corona patients on the second floor of Patidar Hospital near Zero Point Over-bridge due to unknown reasons.
The fire spread rapidly and completely gutted 2 wards of the hospital. Meanwhile, panic prevailed at the hospital with kin and their families running helter-skelter to fend for themselves. Four patients sustained burns in the incident. The fire brigade team took over an hour to control the fire.
EXPERT OPINION
“Were adequate equipments to control fire or to prevent an electric short circuit in place at the hospital? Was it a man-made disaster? Hospitals require special planning at design level to thwart such incidents. However, almost always, the management seldom cares to spare extra-budget for safety appliances and hiring experts. For instance electric safety managers should be hired to look after the installation, monitoring and maintenance of heavy electric apparatuses and machines at the hospital, but it rarely happens. All these fundamental principles of architecture and civil work are neglected most often than not. Worse, once the building construction is over, with electric fittings in place, the managements keeps bringing in more electric appliances without bothering for overloading. A separate agency like fire brigade is the need of the hour to fix this ‘overloading issue’ only then such man-made accident can be curbed. ”—SK Billore, former prosessor of Vikram University
