A four-month-old baby died due to suffocation in an incubator after a fire broke in NICU at Shine Hospital in L.B.nagar, Hyderabad. Four other infants have reportedly sustained burn injuries and shifted to a nearby hospital. The fire broke out due to short circuit in the AC unit inside NICU.
The fire department official said that the hospital is not attentive with any of the fire safety equipment as none of them is functioning. Nearly at 3.00 am on Monday, the third floor of Shine hospital has been caught fire and more than 48 patients were in the hospital at the time.
After investigation, the shocking facts are out that the room did not even have a smoke detector or a fire alarm. Moreover, hospital staff and management have no knowledge of fire accidents or trained in such situations. There was also no emergency fire exit staircase. In spite of 20 years of the hospital, the negligence has now claimed an innocent’s life.
“It was a small fire but as it was an AC room, the staff did not know how to open the vent to let the smoke out. The booster pumps at the hospital were not functioning and nor did anyone know how to operate it,” the fire official said.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) issued a notice to the Hospital and the Directorate of Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) under the GHMC, asked the management to submit a copy of its sanction plan, a copy of the building occupancy certificate, a copy of the trade license and the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department and a copy of the property tax paid.
With this unfortunate incident, the state government is all set to act against buildings without fire safety in Hyderabad and EV&DM Director Vishwajit Kampati said that similar notices would be issued to 1,600 hospitals over a few days.