Govt orders fire safety checks at all hospitals`

Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday directed fire and public works departments to check the fire safety arrangements in all hospitals in the city and take necessary steps to avert fire accidents.

“I have instructed the officials of fire and PWD departments to check fire safety arrangements at all the hospitals to avert any fire incident,” Jain told reporters.

Jain’s instructions came in the wake of the October 17 fire at SUM Hospitals in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, in which 20 persons were killed and over a hundred injured.

Jain, who also holds the portfolio of PWD, issued these instructions at a meeting of senior officials of the fire, public works and the health departments.

“All Delhi hospitals be, it state government, private or central, should be free from encroachment for clear passage on staircases, roofs, corridors. All open areas in the hospitals should be free from dump encroachment as a preventive measure of fire safety,” Jain said. He added that a joint committee of fire, PWD and health departments would inspect all the hospitals 

within seven days for fire safety preparedness and submit a report. “The fire department has been asked to prepare a list of the deficiencies at all the hospitals and send it to me and the Nodal Officer (Principal Secretary PWD) for necessary action,” Jain said.

He said that compliance with the fire department’s No Objection Certificate (NOC) conditions should be done on war footing by all hospitals in Delhi. 

He instructed that installation of fire safety equipment and required repair works should be completed in all city hospitals within 10 days.

Twenty one persons were killed, and 106 others were injured, in the Bhubaneswar fire in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Dialysis Ward in the SUM Hospital, which has 750 beds.