Cause of Odisha hospital fire not yet clear

BHUBANESWAR/CUTTACK: An electrical fire broke out at the trauma department of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack in Odisha on Monday, killing 12 patients. Hospital sources said the fire started due to a small spark caused by an electrical spark in the trauma intensive care unit on the first floor and was quickly extinguished. Until Monday night, it was unclear whether the same spark or an undetected fault elsewhere was the source of the blaze that later spread to the patient room and two floors above. The fire department reported that the time between the initial warning signal and the time firefighters on campus were alerted was more than 15 minutes. Fire chief Sudhansu Sarangi said the department received a call from emergency number 112 at 2:58 am. “Fire trucks were on scene within two minutes,” he said. Health Minister S Aswathy said 11 hospital staff were among the injured. “They were injured while helping rescue and evacuate patients and are now out of danger,” she said. “My sister-in-law Menaka Rout, 54, suffered a head injury in a fall on March 1 and is currently recovering. She is expected to be discharged from the ICU this week. Who could have imagined that something like this would happen,” said Niranjan Swain of Kendrapada.

Hours after the fire, Ghanshyam Behera of Daspara stood outside the hospital building, looking distraught as the gravity of the tragedy began to emerge. “My father had an accident and was being treated in the ward on the third floor when I heard shouts and screams. Black smoke soon covered the ward. I carried my father on my shoulders and ran out,” he said. Gansham’s father Jadumani has since been shifted to the Orthopedic Intensive Care Unit. Sudipta Nayak from Bhadrak spent hours trying to find her 17-year-old cousin, who was in the trauma intensive care unit. “She was on ventilator support for the past eight days due to kidney disease and respiratory complications,” Sudipta said. Security guards asked the teen’s mother Sumati to sign some documents in the morning and said her niece was among the deceased. “I was shocked to hear the news and I went to look for the body. It is already evening and I still haven’t found my cousin,” Sudipta told TOI. The last such hospital fire tragedy in Odisha occurred in October 2016 at the private IMS & SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar. In recent years, the SCB Medical College has come under fire for its alleged crumbling infrastructure amid plans to upgrade it to an ‘AIIMS Plus’ institution.