Hyderabad: Over 200 people, including 29
patients, had a providential escape on Tuesday with their timely
evacuation by firefighters after a major fire broke out in a
private hospital here, however, six people were injured while
trying to escape the blaze.
The patients and other hospital staff got trapped in the
five-storey building at Somajiguda area with huge flames and
thick clouds of smoke emanating for more than one hour,
officials said.
Six people, including two nurses, sustained injuries when
they jumped from the second-floor to escape the fire, while
the condition of two others who inhaled the smoke was
critical, they said.
No one was killed in the mishap, they said, adding that
the cause of the fire is yet to be known.
The joint team of fire and police personnel safely
evacuated 39 in-patients and over 150 hospital staff even as
the blaze spread from the ground floor to the fifth floor of
the Park Super-speciality Hospital, a fire official said.
"We received a call at 9.31 am about the fire incident.
Ten fire tenders were pressed into service immediately,"
Hyderabad District Fire Officer P Deen Dayal said, adding
that it took one hour to extinguish the fire.
"The cause of the fire is being investigated," Dayal
said.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Danam Nagender, who
visited the spot, ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Earlier reports said 15 persons including some patients
sustained burn injuries in the fire mishap.
However, Hyderabad City Police Commissioner A K Khan, who
also visited the spot, said, "There is no loss of life and no
patient was injured. Special care was taken to shift the
patients from the ICU and other emergency wards to a nearby
corporate hospital."
A criminal case was registered against the hospital
management and investigations are under progress to determine
the cause of fire as well to fix the responsibility, he said.
Forensic evidence are being collected besides examining
the witnesses was on.
Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles got stranded for more
than two hours on the busy Panjagutta-Somajiguda stretch after
the incident.
PTI
