A reported short circuit at the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur caused a fire in the record room of the COVID-19 treatment ward on Tuesday night. No casualties have been reported so far.
The incident took place around midnight on Tuesday. The alert hospital staff immediately called in firefighters to put out the fire. Reports in regional media suggest that certain records were burnt in the fire.
According to the police, the ward in which the accident took place had as many as 24 patients being treated for COVID-19. All the patients were evacuated and shifted to another ward in the hospital even as the firefighting was underway.
The District Assistant Collector, Superintendent of Police (SP) and MLA Venkata Rami Reddy rushed to the spot and oversaw the rescue operations.
Speaking to the media, District SP Sathya Yesubabu said that the ward had 24 patients at the time of the accident. He said, “The fire started around midnight on Tuesday. There was a short circuit in the record room adjoining the ward and smoke started coming out, due to which the patients started feeling suffocated. Soon the GGH in-charge, the Assistant Collector and the police reached the scene and shifted the patients safely to another ward.”
He added, “Timely response prevented anything untoward from happening. Also, it was a small short circuit and there was only smoke.”
The SP further stated that all the 24 patients who were shifted to different wards were under the supervision of doctors.
The GGH Special Officer said, “All the staff were mobilised immediately and we shifted the patients in five minutes. Emergency medication was given to the patients besides ventilator facility to patients who required it.”
Earlier this month, 10 people were killed and 20 injured in a fire accident at a private COVID Care Centre in Vijayawada. Investigation showed that the facility taken on lease by Ramesh Hospitals did not have any fire safety procedures in place, after which their permission to continue as a COVID-19 centre was revoked.