Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Dec 14: Panic gripped Bone and Joint Hospital after fire broke out in Out Patient Department (OPD) building of the hospital and authorities had to evacuate scores of patients to safety.
Employees of help poor voluntary trust, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) working in the same building of the hospital said the fire started in the building’s wooden top floor which then spread to main building and engulfed its first floor.
Officials of the hospital said that one of the rooms of the building was storing some LPG cylinders despite central heating arrangements available in the building. Two gas cylinders also exploded which intensified the flames further.
The building was housing OPD, hospital library and some side rooms.
R T Dobey, Fire and Emergency Services, Joint Director, Kashmir Range, said 20 firefighters were engaged to douse the fire. “Fire fighters played a herculean task to minimize the damage and prevented fire from spreading to other neighboring buildings,” Dobey said.
Doctors on duty said the cause of fire could be short circuit. They said when the fire broke out it took fire men few minutes to reach the spot to douse the fire.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team collected samples to ascertain the cause of fire in the hospital.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Farroq Ahmad Shah visited the hospital.
Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, CPI (M) State Secretary has expressed serious concern over the safety of Government buildings, especially those housing healthcare infrastructure and asked the Government to take concrete steps to make these buildings fireproof.
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