At least 40 persons, including medicos, hospital staffs and personnel from fire brigade, were taken ill when they came in contact with chlorine gas leaked from the Public Health Department (PHD) pump house in the SCB Medical College Hospital campus here on Wednesday afternoon.
Hospital sources said those who came in contact with the gas, including patients and attendants, in the hospital complained of nausea, chest pain and vomiting. All of them were hospitalised. Conditions of three were stated to be serious and they were shifted to ICU.
Fire brigade personnel, who rushed to stop the gas leak, said at least three gas-filled cylinders were kept in the pump house and the compressed gas leaked from one of the damaged cylinders. The damaged cylinder was immediately removed to a deserted place at the nearby river islet.
Eyewitnesses said people in the vicinity of the pump house were exposed to the gas for about half an hour before the fire tenders arrived. Fire brigade personnel had to struggle for quite some time to block the leakage. But when they failed, it was decided to remove the cylinder from the campus.
District Collector Sushant Mohapatra, who rushed to the hospital, said all those taken ill were undergoing treatment.
“An inquiry will be conducted to ascertain the cause of the gas leak,” Mohapatra said, adding that chlorine gas was stored for the purpose of water purification.
