18, including 16 Covid patients, die in Guj hosp fire

Bharuch/New Delhi: At least 18 persons, including 16 COVID-19 patients, died in a fire at a hospital at Bharuch in Gujarat in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.

The state government said a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the fire that destroyed the Intensive Care Unit of Patel Welfare Hospital, run by a charitable trust.

"Sixteen Coronavirus patients and two nursing staff were either charred to death or died due to suffocation inside a COVID-19 unit," Superintendent of Police Rajendrasinh Chudasama said.

As many as 50 patients were undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 facility on the ground floor when the fire broke out in the ICU around 1 am, probably because of a short circuit, said a hospital official.

The fire was doused within an hour. Local people and the kin of patients helped in the rescue operation during which dozens of patients were shifted to other facilities by ambulance. Some were brought out of the building on wheelchairs or make-shift stretchers of cloth.

The four-storey designated COVID-19 hospital stands on the Bharuch-Jambusar highway, 190 km from Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced ex-gratia aid of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.

He also directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Labour) Vipul Mittra and Commissioner of Municipalities Administration Rajkumar Beniwal to conduct an inquiry. The two IAS officials arrived at the site on Saturday afternoon and visited the ICU.

The government will also institute a judicial inquiry into the tragedy, Rupani told reporters.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah expressed grief over the incident.