Navi Mumbai: A fire broke out in the basement of Sushrusha Hospital, Sector 6, Nerul, around 12 noon on Monday, prompting the evacuation of 21 patients. No casualties were reported, and all patients are safe, fire officials confirmed.
At the time of the fire, four patients were in the ICU at first floor, 15 in another ward at the second floor and two more at the third floor. "The fire started from the basement wherein they had set up an xray room. There was a AC unit in the basement and the fire started from the compressor. There were a lot of stationary items near the AC unit which immediately caught fire. There was no vent for the smoke to pass and it travelled to the upper floors through the lift duct," fire officer Purushottam Jadhav from Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation said.
Along with the patients, there were 42 hospital staff as well who too were rescued.
Firefighters from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Nerul and Vashi units reached the site with four fire engines, doused the blaze. The evacuated patients were shifted to other hospitals as a precaution. Preliminary investigation indicates the fire may have been caused by a short circuit in the basement’s air-conditioning system, though the exact cause is yet to be confirmed.
