Blaze in Odisha hospital claims 12 patients’ lives

BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: An electrical fire originating at a trauma unit of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha’s Cuttack killed 12 patients on Monday. Hospital source said the blaze followed a small fire from an electrical spark in the first-floor trauma ICU that had been quickly attended to and doused. Till late Monday, there was no clarity on whether the same spark or an undetected fault elsewhere was the source of the massive fire that coursed through the ward and two upper floors moments later. The fire services department reported a gap of more than 15 minutes between the initial warning signs and firefighters on campus being alerted. Director general of fire services Sudhansu Sarangi said the department received a call on the emergency number 112 at 2.58am. “Fire engines reached the spot within two minutes,” he said. Health secretary S Aswathy said 11 staffers of the hospital were among the injured. “They suffered injuries while helping rescue and evacuate patients. They are all out of danger,” she said. “My sister-in-law Menaka Rout, 54, was recovering after suffering a head injury in a fall on March 1. She was expected to be out of the ICU this week. Who could have imagined something like this would happen,” said Niranjan Swain of Kendrapada. Ghanshyam Behera of Daspalla stood outside the hospital building hours after the fire, looking distraught as the enormity of the tragedy sunk in. “My father had had an accident and was being treated in a third-floor ward when I heard shouting and screaming. Black fumes blanketed the ward in quick time. I carried my father on my shoulders and ran outside,” he said. Ghanshyam’s father Jadumani has since been shifted to the orthopaedic ICU. Sudipta Nayak from Bhadrak spent hours trying to trace her 17-year-old cousin, who was in the trauma ICU. “She was on ventilator support for the past eight days because of a kidney ailment and respiratory complications,” said Sudipta. Security guards told the teenager’s mother Sumati in the morning to sign some papers, saying her niece was among the dead. “Shocked as I was to hear this, I went looking for the body. It’s evening now and I still haven’t found my cousin,” Sudipta told TOI. The last such hospital fire tragedy in Odisha occurred in Oct 2016 at the private IMS & SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar. SCB Medical College has been facing heat in recent years for its allegedly crumbling infrastructure amid plans for an upgrade to an “AIIMS Plus” institution