| |
| Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: FR-20100202-24769-IND
Situation Update No. 1
On 2010-02-02 at 13:26:03 [UTC]
Event: Fire
Location: India State of Andhra Pradesh Park Hospital Hyderabad Number of Injured: 30 person(s)
Situation: Over 200 persons including 29 patients had a providential escape with their timely evacuation by firefighters, after a major fire broke out in a private hospital in Somajiguda area this morning. The patients, among other hospital staff, got trapped in the five-storey building with huge flames and thick clouds of smoke emanating for more than one hour, even as six persons including two nurses sustained injuries when they jumped from the second-floor, while the condition of two others who inhaled smoke was critical. However, no one was killed in the fire mishap and it was put off, officials said adding the causes of the fire were still not known. The fire and police personnel safely evacuated 39 in-patients and over 150 hospital staff after they got trapped in different floors of the building even as the blaze spread from the ground floor to the fifth floor of the 'Park Superspeciality Hospital', a fire official said. "We received a call at 9.31am about the fire incident. Ten fire tenders were pressed into service immediately," Hyderabad district fire officer P Deen Dayal, who supervised the fire-fighting operations. Fire fighters used ten fire tenders and other advanced fire-fighting equipment and the fire was extinguished in one hour. "Fortunately, there's no death and the cause of the fire was being investigated," Dayal said. Health and family welfare minister Danam Nagender, who visited the spot, ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. Earlier reports said 15 persons including some patients sustained burn injuries in the fire mishap. Hyderabad city police commissioner AK Khan, who also visited the spot, said, "There is no loss of life and no patient was injured. Special care was taken to shift the patients from the ICU and other emergency wards to a nearby corporate hospital." A criminal case was registered against the hospital management and investigations are under progress to determine the cause of fire as well to fix the responsibility. Khan further said forensic evidence was being collected besides examining the witnesses was on. "After the investigations, it will be determined whether the safety standards as per the regulations were followed or not by the hospital," the city police chief said. Hundreds of vehicles got stranded for more than two hours on the busy Panjagutta-Somajiguda stretch after the incident. |  | | | |
This blog offers a compilation of recent news and world events given by RSOE-Emergency and Disaster Information Service, Reuters News Agency, BBC News , CNN International and Al Jezeera News
