Fire breaks out in op theatre of a Vizag hospital; no casualties reported

A fire department official said they received a call at around 12 noon about the fire in Indus Hospital at Jagadamba Centre.

HYDERABAD: A fire broke out in the operation theatre of a private hospital in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam city on Thursday afternoon. No casualties were reported police said.

The fire is suspected to have started on the second floor (Videograb)

A fire department official, who did not identify himself, told local reporters that they received a call at around 12 noon about a fire accident in the Indus Hospital at Jagadamba Centre.

“We have rushed four fire tenders to the spot, along with rescue teams, to put out the fire and rescue the trapped patients,” he said. As many as 52 patients, including 15 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were rescued and shifted to neighbouring hospitals, he said.

Preliminary investigations by the police who reached the spot along with state disaster response force (SDRF) teams indicated that the fire broke out in the operation theatre on the second floor of the hospital due to leakage of nitrous oxide which caught fire due to a short circuit in the electrical line.

“Within no time, the fire engulfed the entire floor and thick plumes of fumes spread to the first and third floors. All the patients in the two floors were brought to safety,” Ramana, a local journalist with a vernacular daily said, quoting Visakhapatnam police commissioner Ravi Shankar Ayyannar.

While some of the out-patients and their attendants came out on their own, many others were rescued by the hospital staffer, police and SDRF teams. “There were no casualties,” police said.