Fire at Safdarjung Hospital, 60 patients moved, no casualties
New Delhi: A massive fire broke out in one of the medical wards of the government-run Safdarjung Hospital here, forcing fire officials, doctors, nurses and hospital staff to evacuate as many as 60 patients, some of whom were in delicate conditions.
Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Services said no casualty has been reported in the blaze that broke out around 6:30 am. As per the official, after they received information nine fire tenders were rushed to the spot.
A Delhi Police official said that prima facie, it looked like the fire broke out due to a short circuit which was brought under control in time by the hospital staff.
As per the fire official, the fire was small but heavy smoke was there which might have caused problems so, with the help of hospital staff, the 60 patients, including five in the intensive care unit (ICU) were rescued and taken to a safe place.
However, hospital authorities insisted that the fire was not in the ICU, but in medical ward 11 of the building. Dr Manish, president of the Safdarjung Resident Doctors' Association (RDA), said, "News reports have said that the hospital's ICU was on fire. This is false. Fire was not reported from ICU but from another ward, in Ward 11, which is the Medical ward. The fire happened due to electrical short-circuiting. We were able to get the entire ward evacuated in time and there was fortunately no casualty. Patients were evacuated from the site by doctors and attendants on duty."
The hospital's medical wing is spread across three floors - 11th, 12th and 13th. Patients evacuated from Ward 11 were moved into the wards on the 12th and 13th floors, hospital authorities added.
Speaking about the damage done to the ward and hospital equipment, Dr Manish said that the damage was not very severe and that Ward 11 should be able to resume normal functioning in the next 10 to 15 days.
When asked if COVID-19 services at the hospital will get affected due to this incident, he said, "Not at all. We have a completely separate building for COVID-19 so treatment of patients and other services will not be affected at all."
