The blaze in King George’s Medical University (KGMU) trauma centre on Saturday evening is ample illustration that hospitals are no safe havens. And this is primarily because government hospitals stand out to be the biggest defaulters when it comes to fire safety norms.
On Monday, two days after the trauma centre fire , the fire department served notices to 12 government hospitals in the city. “Initially, we have served notices to around 12 government hospitals. We are also checking other hospitals, both government and private, to ensure that proper fire safety equipment is in place,” said AB Pandey, Chief Fire Officer, Lucknow.
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If the records of the fire department are to be believed, most of the government hospitals lack fire safety equipment. The records further suggest that not a single government hospital has procured NOC from the fire department. “The situation is disturbing, as most of the government hospitals don’t have adequate fire safety measures and this is against the law,” an official of the fire department said.
Jhalkaribai, Avantibai, Balrampur and Lokbandhu are a few on the list of the 12 government hospitals where fire safety norms take the back seat. In the last financial year, the fire department had served notices to 12 government hospitals and 28 primary health centres. But officials said the hospitals paid no heed to the notices served by DG, Fire in 2015-2016.
{{/usCountry}}Jhalkaribai, Avantibai, Balrampur and Lokbandhu are a few on the list of the 12 government hospitals where fire safety norms take the back seat. In the last financial year, the fire department had served notices to 12 government hospitals and 28 primary health centres. But officials said the hospitals paid no heed to the notices served by DG, Fire in 2015-2016.
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They said the notices were served after the department found that the hospitals lacked fire safety equipments like extinguisher, hose reel, smoke detector, fire pump and down comers .
Other government hospitals are no better . In Civil hospital, there was no fire fighting equipment to tackle a Trauma Centre like fire tragedy, said an official . The system is there in Lohia hospital but no monitoring is done.