At Least 13 COVID Patients Killed In Maharashtra Hospital Fire; Second In Less Than A Month
Thirteen COVID-19 patients died in a blaze at the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Friday. There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit. The dead include five women and eight men.
Thirteen COVID-19 patients died in a blaze at the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Friday.
There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in the ICU, when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit. The dead include five women and eight men.
ANI
What happened?
According to officials, the fire broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar shortly after 3 am, an official said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 am.
There were 18 patients in the ICU when the fire broke out, the official said. Five patients were rescued and shifted to other hospitals in the area
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe into the tragedy, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said.
Prime Minister @narendramodi condoles deaths in Virar Hospital fire, approves ex-gratia of ?2 lakh each from PMNRF for the next of kin of those who have lost their liveshttps://t.co/e4OOLFxxjB pic.twitter.com/vNUUwp9C9m
¡ª PIB India (@PIB_India) April 23, 2021
ANI
Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said authorities should check if there was a fire safety audit of the hospital, which is over 50 km from Mumbai.
I am on the spot of Virar COVID Hospital Fire.
¡ª Kirit Somaiya (@KiritSomaiya) April 23, 2021
COVID Patients in Maharashtra are feeling Helpless.
Whether it's Fire in COVID Center or Oxygen Crisis or Crisis of ICU or Crisis of Remdesivir.
Administration is Collapsed@BJP4Maharashtra @BJP4India @Dev_Fadnavis
District Disaster Control Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam told PTI that the Virar hospital fire was preceded by an explosion in the AC unit of the intensive care unit.
ANI
Relatives of the deceased reached the hospital soon after hearing of the incident and demanded that stringent action be taken against those responsible for the tragedy.
Second fire in less than a month
This is the second fire in a COVID-19 hospital in Maharashtra in less than a month.
Last month, 11 COVID-19 patients had died after a fire broke out at the Sunrise Hospital located within the Dreamz Mall in Mumbai's Bhandup, trapping patients and staff inside.
BCCL
The fire was first spotted on the first floor of the mall where shops for home decor and imitation jewellery were located and later spread to other floors.
The incident also comes just a couple of days after 22 COVID-19 patients who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen supply stopped suddenly due to a malfunction in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik.
BCCL
Earlier this year, ten infants were killed in a fire that broke out at a special newborn care unit of the Bhandara district hospital in Maharashtra.
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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