IT Correspondent
Mumbai, May 12:
A minor fire broke out due to a spark in a TV, at a hotel- turned-Covid care centre in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar town, in the wee hours Wednesday. However a major mishap was averted since all the 68 patients were promptly evacuated by the hospital staff and fire brigade.
The fire broke out soon after midnight at the top floor of the three-storey hotel- “Generation X Hotel” facility, where the patients were kept, said senior fire officer of Bhavnagar fire brigade, Bharat Kanada. Bhavnagar Collector Gaurang Makwana said all the 68 coronavirus patients at the centre were safe and the “minor fire” was brought under control immediately. The hotel, around 170 km from the state capital-Gandhi Nagar, was converted into a Covid care centre by a private hospital.
There was a stampede when the hospital caught fire. Patients were brought out in hurry. Many patients were on oxygen support. They were brought out with oxygen cylinders and immediately shifted to another hospital. No patient died due to the readiness of Generation Hospital.
Earlier, a fire broke out on the night of April 30 in the Corona Care Ward at Patel Welfare Hospital in Bharuch city of Gujarat. Soon the flames had reached the ward ICU. 14 patients and 2 staff nurses lost their lives in the serious accident.
Fire also came to light at Prime Critic’s Hospital in Thane, Maharashtra, two days before the fire at Patel Welfare Hospital in Bharuch. The work of shifting the patients to another hospital was started immediately after the fire, but four patients died during the shift process.. A few days before the incident, 14 people lost their lives in a fire at Vijay Vallabh Covid Hospital in the Virar area adjoining Mumbai.