A late-night fire at the state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital’s trauma centre in Jaipur claimed the lives of six critically ill patients.
The fire led to chaos in the building as smoke quickly spread through the floor, sparking panic among patients and their families.
Hospital staff and patient attendants immediately began evacuating patients, with some being moved outside the building on their beds.
A late-night fire at the state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital’s trauma centre in Jaipur claimed the lives of six critically ill patients on Sunday. The incident occurred in the Neuro ICU, located within the trauma facility, PTI reported.
Trauma centre in-charge Dr. Anurag Dhakad confirmed that 11 patients were being treated in the Neuro ICU when the blaze erupted in a nearby storage area. “Six of them, two women and four men, died in the incident,” he said. “Fourteen other patients were admitted in a different ICU, and all were successfully evacuated to safer locations,” Dr. Dhakad added. He said a suspected short circuit is believed to have caused the fire.
The deceased have been identified as Pintu (from Sikar), Dilip (from Andhi, Jaipur), Shrinath, Rukmini, Khurma (all from Bharatpur), and Bahadur (from Sanganer, Jaipur), hospital officials stated.
The fire led to chaos in the building as smoke quickly spread through the floor, sparking panic among patients and their families. Documents, ICU equipment, blood sample tubes, and other stored medical supplies were destroyed in the blaze.
Hospital staff and patient attendants immediately began evacuating patients, with some being moved outside the building on their beds. Firefighters arrived shortly after the alert was raised and brought the fire under control in around two hours.
Vikas, a ward boy present at the scene, told PTI. “We were inside the operating theatre when we heard about the fire, so we immediately rushed to rescue the people inside the centre. We managed to save at least three to four patients. However, as the flames intensified, we could no longer go into the building. We did our best to rescue as many as we could,” he said.
He further added that police arrived later, but “they could not enter the building immediately due to the heavy smoke.”
When firefighters reached the scene, the entire ward was blanketed in smoke. They had to break a window on the opposite side of the building to begin dousing the fire.
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma visited the hospital late at night along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel and Minister of State for Home Jawahar Singh Bedham to assess the situation and meet with hospital staff and patients.
During the ministers’ initial visit, some attendants of patients voiced their anger, accusing hospital staff of abandoning the scene during the fire and failing to provide updates on their loved ones.
“We noticed smoke and immediately informed the staff, but they did not pay any heed. When the fire broke out, they were the first to run. Now, we cannot get any information about our patients. We want to know their condition, but no one is telling us,” one attendant said.
With PTI inputs
