Fire at Diamond Harbour Super-specialty Hospital, no casualties

Kolkata: A fire broke out at Diamond Harbour Super-specialty Hospital on Monday morning triggering panic among the patients.

According to hospital sources, the fire broke out at the labour room situated on the fourth floor of the hospital building and later spread to the other floors. Some of the staff spotted smoke billowing out of the labour room. The matter was immediately reported to the fire brigade.

Staff accompanied by the security personnel evacuated the patients undergoing treatment on various floors.

Some patients, however, got panicked and started running helter and skelter for a safer place. Some of them received minor injuries while rushing down through the staircases of the hospital.

The labour room was soon covered with smoke. Some of the expectant mothers, who were admitted, tried to escape from the fourth floor. Nursing staff rescued some of the patients and helped them to come out of the hospital building. A chaos broke out when relatives of the patients entered the ward to bring out their patients. Some, however, fell ill after inhaling smoke.

Mothers who delivered new babies were also taken out of the hospital building.

The hospital staff not only started the rescue operation but also tried to douse the flames with the help of the fire fighting mechanism in the hospital.

But they failed to identify the source of the fire as thick black smoke soon covered the entire area. Two fire tenders were pressed into action to douse the flames.

Police officers rushed to the spot and cordoned off the entire area to avert further mishap. The fire officials and police carried out a search operation at the various departments that are situated on the fourth floor, third floor and second floor of the building. The fire officials later spotted the source of the fire and extinguished the flames.

The situation was brought under control within an hour. Normalcy was gradually restored.

A portion of the labour room is damaged due to the fire. The exact cause of the fire and the extent of the damage are yet to be confirmed by police and the fire department. According to the preliminary investigation, fire officials suspect that an electrical short circuit might have led to

the fire.