As many as 58 patients, including 20 Covid-19 patients, were shifted from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Kasturba hospital at Agripada in south-central Mumbai to some other building on the same hospital premises, following a Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) leak on Saturday.
The gas leak took place at 11.34 am in building number 148 of the hospital, triggering panic among the hospital staff and relatives the patients. Not wanting to take any chances, the hospital administration cordoned off the area.
“As a precautionary measure, the patients were shifted to another building on the hospital premises away from the affected area,” BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said.
Incidentally, Kasturba Hospital was the first Covid-19 facility in Mumbai, when Covid-19 broke out in the metropolis in March-April last year. Soon after the hospital administration notified them about the gas leak that was taking place from a joint in an LPG tank, the Mumbai Fire brigade personnel arrived on the scene.
The fire brigade personnel helped the hospital administration in shifting all the 58 patients from the affected building, including 20 undergoing treatment for the pandemic, to another safer building located on the hospital premises. Before long, a team from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) rushed to the hospital and plugged the leak LPG bullet tank located in the hospital grounds.
Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray, who rushed to the hospital soon aftrer the news of gas leak spread, complimented the hospital administration for averting what could have been a major tragedy.
Talking to media persons, Aditya said: “The hospital staff acted swiftly and averted a major tragedy. The situation is now under control. The work of controlling the gas leak is underway".
There were two versions as to what might have contributed to the gas. While the fire brigade personnel said that the leak might have started after a hit by a JCB machine being used by some workers for excavation work on the hospital premises, the other version was that the leakage reportedly occurred because of the malfunction of a valve during the transfer of the gas from the tanker to a storage facility at the hospital.
Meanwhile, senior police, fire brigade, disaster management officials and experts from the HPCL were at the hospital to ensure against any untoward fallout of the gas leak.