At least six critical patients were killed in a fire at the trauma centre of state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur late Sunday night, PTI news agency reported.
According to Dr Anurag Dhakad, the Trauma Centre’s in-charge, 11 patients were being treated in the Neuro ICU when the fire erupted in the storage area.
“Six of them, two women and four men, died in the incident. Fourteen other patients were admitted in a different ICU, and all were successfully evacuated to safer locations,” PTI quoted Dhakad as saying. A suspected short circuit is believed to have caused the blaze, he added.
The Deceased Wee Idensified as Pintu (from Sikar), Dilip (from Andhi, Jaipur), Shrinath, Rukmini, Khurma (all from Bharatpur) and Bahadur (from Sangner, Jaipur), Officials Stated.
The fire created chaos in the building, with smoke rapidly spreading throughout the floor and causing panic among patients and their families.
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel and Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham, visited the trauma centre to assess the situation.
When Patel and Bedham reached the hospital, relatives of two patients confronted them, alleging that the staff had fled when the fire broke out. They also complained that hospital authorities had failed to share any information about their patients’ condition.
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“We noticed smoke and immediately alerted the staff, but they didn’t pay any attention. When the fire started, they were the first to run. Now we can’t get any update about our patients,” said one attendant.
Later, Chief Minister Sharma arrived at the site and spoke with doctors and patients.
— with inputs from PTI
