Inspections reveal inadequate fire safety measures at two Covid hospitals in Gurugram

After incidents of fire were recently reported at Covid-19 facilities in Ahmedabad and Vijaywada, the Gurugram fire department on Monday conducted an on-site inspection

After incidents of fire were recently reported at Covid-19 facilities in Ahmedabad and Vijaywada, the Gurugram fire department on Monday conducted an on-site inspection at Civil Hospital in Sector 10 and ESIC (Employees State Insurance Corporation) Hospital in Sector 9, and found that they do not have a valid no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. Furthermore, both the hospitals were found to be violating fire safety norms.

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Both hospitals are being used extensively for Covid-19 operations. While the ESIC hospital has 58 beds reserved for Covid-19 patients, the Civil Hospital in Sector 10 has been designated as a centre for testing suspected patients through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

Two fire safety officers from the fire department, Sunil Adlahka and Ramesh Saini, conducted on-site inspections at both the hospitals.

At the Sector 10 Civil Hospital, Adlakha said, the fire-fighting system was yet to be properly installed, while the building had never obtained a fire safety NOC.

“The Sector 10 Civil Hospital has not obtained even the first fire NOC certificate. They had obtained the fire scheme only last year. Upon inspection, a lot of items were found to be non-functional or improperly installed. Both the fire pumps and fire hydrants were not properly installed, while the smoke detector system, although present, was found to be in a dysfunctional condition. Additionally, the sprinkler system was also found to be missing,” said Adlakha.

Adlakha further said that the officials at the ESIC hospital had applied for a fire NOC renewal in 2018 but upon a visit by fire officials at that time, shortcomings were found and subsequently, objections were raised. However, the hospital staff never solved the discrepancies, neither did they reapply for an NOC once again.

“ESIC hospital has a fire-fighting system but it was found to be largely in a dysfunctional condition. We found the smoke detector system and the hydrant system to be non-functional, while a few fire extinguisher cylinders were found to be empty. We have informed the concerned staff members of these hospitals to get their fire-safety and fire-fighting measures in order,” said Adlakha.

Adlakha further said that he is compiling a report on the team’s visit to the hospitals and will be submitting a report to Satyavan Samriwal, assistant divisional fire officer, for further action.

“Based on the findings of the report, fresh notices will be issued to the respective in-charges of both the hospitals on Tuesday. Even after repeated notices if they fail to comply, we will issue a notice to their respective headquarters to take action and caution them that further failure to get the fire-fighting systems in place will lead to the hospitals getting sealed,” said Samriwal.

Samriwal said that the action was initiated in the wake of the fire incidents in Ahmedabad and Vijaywada. He added that since most isolation centres in the city are situated in one-storey structures the chances of fire violations are low. Nonetheless, routine inspections for checking the presence of fire extinguishers will be conducted soon.

Dr Shubra Gupta, medical superintendent, ESIC Hospital, said, “The fire NOC has to be renewed. Certain changes have been suggested for the revised NOC after the expiry of the previous one. The regional director’s office in Faridabad has already been informed about the NOC and they are likely to float a tender of ₹40-50 lakh for adequate arrangements at the hospital.”

Gupta further said that the issue of fire NOC issue was also raised with the Gurugram administration when the facility was being declared as the designated Covid-19 hospital for the city in April.

At that time, due to poor infrastructure and medical facilities at Sector 10 Civil Hospital, the ESIC Hospital had to utilise its 58-bed facility for Covid-19 patients, despite having improper fire safety measures.

In the case of Sector 10 Civil Hospital, Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), said that a file has been sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for upgrading the existing fire system.

“The main shortcoming at the Sector 10 Civil Hospital is of the absence of a sprinkler system. We have sent estimates and the projected cost to the PWD for this, and they will soon be floating requisite tenders for it,” said Yadav.

Dr Deepa Sindhu, principal medical officer of Sector 10 Civil Hospital, was unavailable for further comments on the matter.

On Sunday, at least 10 people died and 20 injured following a fire at a hotel in Vijaywada, which was being used for isolating Covid-19 patients. On Thursday, eight Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the ICU of a Covid-designated hospital in Ahmedabad.

Besides the two hospitals, fire department officials also visited the practically defunct Civil hospital in Civil Lines, opposite the old Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) office on Monday. Since the building will be soon demolished and currently serves limited functions, inspections will be carried out once the new building is constructed, said fire department officials.