Kolkata: Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi ordered a forensic investigation into the fire incident that took place at the CT scan room of SSKM Hospital on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
At around 10.30 pm, fire broke out in the CT scan room and around 10 tenders were pressed into action. The fire was brought under control a little after 11 pm. Locals also helped in the evacuation. Some of the staff members saw smoke billowing out of the emergency department. Health workers and the security staff members removed at least 20 patients from the department.
A staff member of the hospital said that a loud thud was heard following which the smoke was spotted.
The Chief Secretary and minister Aroop Biswas rushed to the hospital soon after the incident. Hospital authorities will investigate how the entire incident happened. Besides, the police and fire department will also carry out separate probes. According to sources, it is being assumed that some valuable equipment might have been damaged. An examination will be carried out to see whether scan machines, digital X-ray, MRI machine, USG equipment are intact in the Emergency department. There was a "partial" disruption of regular services in the Emergency ward of the hospital on Friday and most of the patients were referred to other departments to take regular tests following Thursday night's fire at the CT Scan unit housed there, an official said. At least 25 patients were shifted to the Trauma Care and Mackenzie Ward on Thursday night itself. "Emergency services promptly acted and fire was entirely brought under control. Nobody was injured," Biswas told the reporters at the hospital. According to hospital sources, the fire might have been caught due to a short circuit in the Emergency department, following which the patients were shifted immediately to another ward.
Health Secretary NS Nigam on Friday said a probe will be conducted to find out whether there is any sabotage behind the fire at the state-run SSKM Hospital here. This is the third fire incident at the medical institute in a few years' time, said Nigam. On November 21, 2016 a fire broke out at the library housed at SSKM Hospital's Ronald Ross building. Before that, the Emergency ward of the hospital had witnessed a small fire on March 21, 2012.