Fire broke out in the trauma centre of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on Saturday.
Doctors, paramedics, attendants and security personnel had a tough time evacuating the about 200 critical patients amidst the bellowing smoke. The evacuation process continued till late in the night. Several door and window panes had to be broken in a bid to let the smoke escape and facilitate evacuation that continued till late in the night.
A critically ill woman, who left Trauma Centre for Lohia Hospital after the incident, reportedly died on the way.
“It happened all of a sudden. No alarm was heard. Only a few attendants came rushing to the ward and screamed fire and soon the building was engulfed in fire and smoke,” said an attendant at the Trauma Centre that has capacity to admit over 250 patients at a time in its four floors.
As it was night time, patients had great difficulty in moving out and they had no idea where to go or whom to contact. Many patients were seen crying for help, while the ‘inadequate’ security personnel could manage to rescue only a few of them.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Early probe indicated there was short circuit in the store on the second floor.
“I felt like choking as I moved out of the ward with my mother Shashikala,” said another attendant.
Patients who were at the causality ward or at the diagnostic centre for X-ray, CT scan etc at the ground floor were seen coming out on stretchers with the help of their attendants. Some of them were being administered normal saline and they came out with great difficulty.
Within minutes dozens of stretchers were seen outside the centre as patients and attendants moved out in panic. Evacuation was not easy as only the main exit was opened. Later more doors were opened by breaking the locks.
Some patients were shifted to the adjacent Shatabdi Hospital and Lari Cardiology and some were referred to Balrampur hospital and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
Those admitted in the ICU too had to be brought out as electricity supply was hit after the fire.
“We immediately got the glass panes broken to get rid of the smoke and called fire tenders,” said Prof SN Sankhwar, chief medical superintendent of KGMU.
As per the KGMU spokesperson, the fire broke out at around 7 pm and immediately security staff swung into action to douse the fire along with firemen.
