Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu): Over 350 people, most of them patients, had a narrow escape, after a major fire broke out in Ramanathapuram Government Medical College Hospital on Wednesday midnight.
Police said here on Thursday morning that the fire was reported at the electrical control room on the second floor of a block shortly after midnight due to suspected electrical short circuit.
Soon after the fire, plumes of black smoke that billowed out of the electrical control room engulfed the second floor leading to chaos and panic among the in-patients, their attendants and hospital staff.
Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department personnel rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire, but the black smoke continued to spread through the patients’ wards.
All the patients, attendants and hospital staff on the second, third and fourth floors were swiftly evacuated using wheelchairs and stretchers and moved to the adjacent building, while two patients undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were shifted to the Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care unit.
District Collector Simranjeet Singh Kahlon rushed to the hospital and supervised the rescue operation.
Talking to newsmen, he said all the patients were safe and no one was injured in the fire accident.
Senior police officials visited the hospital and held an inquiry.
A detailed investigation is underway to ascertain the exact cause of the fire.
