Bareilly hospital fire triggers panic, around 80 patients evacuated
A fire broke out on the top floor of the five-storey Navodaya Hospital in Bareilly on Saturday morning. Thick smoke spread through the building after the fire started. The incident caused panic among patients and their attendants.
The fire broke out around 10 am on the fourth floor of the hospital on Mini Bypass Road. A short circuit in the MCV box is suspected to have caused the fire. The hospital was crowded at the time as it was OPD hours. Around 80 patients were admitted to the hospital, according to police.
Fire alarms went off on every floor as smoke spread through the building. Hospital staff immediately began evacuating patients. Critically ill patients were taken out on stretchers. Relatives carried newborn babies in their arms as they rushed out of the building.
Police and fire brigade teams reached the hospital after receiving information about the fire. Firefighters faced difficulties because of the heavy smoke. They found four to five people trapped on the upper floor and brought them down safely through the staircase.
The fire was brought under control after around two hours of efforts, according to the information provided by the fire department. All patients were safely evacuated. No casualties were reported. Police said no patients were admitted to the fourth floor where the fire started.
A large crowd gathered outside the hospital as relatives tried to locate their family members. The hospital administration arranged ambulances and shifted the patients to nearby hospitals as a precaution.
Hospital owner Umesh Gangwar said the fire started in a rest room on the top floor. The room had sofas and other furniture. These items caused the fire to spread and produced thick smoke, he said. Gangwar said the fire brigade reached the hospital in time and stopped the flames from spreading to other floors. However, the smoke triggered the fire alarms across the building. The hospital was evacuated as a precaution, Gangwar said.
Patients were shifted to Raj Hospital and Prasap Hospital. Hospital staff were also moved to these facilities to monitor the patients. Gangwar said the top floor is generally not used and has very little movement. He said the hospital has the required fire-safety arrangements.
The canteen on the upper floor has also been closed for about one-and-a-half years and has remained unused. Only one or two sofas are believed to have been damaged in the fire so far. No patient or other person was injured.
Fire brigade employee Kapil Singh said the cause of the fire was being investigated. He said the entry and exit routes of the hospital were also being inspected. Fire-safety arrangements at the hospital were being checked as part of the inspection.
Meanwhile, relatives waited outside the hospital for information about patients who had been shifted. Shahana, whose husband was admitted to the hospital, said she was trying to find out where he had been taken.
“My husband is undergoing treatment and was admitted to the general ward. I have just reached the hospital, so I don’t know where he is at the moment or which hospital he has been shifted to. I am trying to find out,” she said.
Another relative, Haroon, said his father had been admitted for the past seven to eight days. “My father has been admitted to the hospital for the past 7-8 days. He had been suffering from a cough. I have just reached the hospital, so I don’t know what happened or how. I am trying to find out where my father is,” he said.
