Bhubaneswar:
At least 22 patients were killed and over 109 others injured in a fire that broke out at the SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday evening, in one of the worst such incidents involving a medical facility in Odisha.
Nineteen people have been confirmed dead, while several other were injured, informed Aditya Padhi, Odisha Chief Secy.Â
The injured were all shifted to Capital Hospital. Post-mortem was being carried out on deceased patients.Â
#WATCH: Fire broke out in ICU ward of Institute of Medical Sciences & Sum Hospital, Bhubaneswar.5 fire tenders at the spot. Fire fighting on pic.twitter.com/3iCMVSsQQz
— ANI (@ANI_news) October 17, 2016
Voicing “serious†concern over the fire incident at the Sum Hospital, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik described the mishap as “very tragicâ€.
He directed the government hospitals to provide necessary treatment to patients shifted from Sum Hospital and requested all private hospitals to extend treatment to the patients from ill-fated medical facility.
The blaze was suspected to have been triggered by an electric short circuit in the dialysis ward on the first floor of the private hospital which spread to the nearby Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The fire rapidly spread to other areas on the same floor of the four-storeyed hospital building.
The commissionerate of police and fire brigade personnel along with volunteers and hospital staff launched a massive rescue operation as more than 500 indoor patients were trapped in the building, hospital officials said.
At least seven fire tenders were pressed into service to control the blaze and over a dozen ambulances deployed to shift the critical patients to other hospitals.
Many patients were rescued by breaking window panes, an eyewitness said.Meanwhile, the state government has ordered a high-level probe by the Director, Medical Education and Training, into the incident.Â
For kin of hospial fire victims, the government has issued a helpline number: 9439991226
(With PTI Inputs)
