Massive fire at Gorakhpur BRD Medical College, 58 patients evacuated

Gorakhpur: In an unfortunate incident, a massive fire broke out Thursday night in the medicine ward of the Gorakhpur BRD Medical College but was brought under control within hours. Fifty-eight patients were evacuated of which 12 were in ICU on ventilators.

A massive fire broke out in the medicine ward of the Gorakhpur BRD Medical College a senior official said on Friday.

The fire broke out Thursday night in medicine ward number 14 when there were 58 patients in the ward, of which 12 were in ICU on ventilators, he said.

District Magistrate Krishna Karunesh who rushed to the hospital said there was no casualty due to the incident. However, one death did take place in the hospital around the time of the fire.

According to college principal Ganesh Kumar, it took place in another ward and was not related to the fire.

Two fire tenders rushed to the spot and put the blaze out within two hours of when it was first reported. Patients of the affected ward were shifted to other wards, the official said.

District Magistrate Krishna Karunesh who visited the hospital said the fire possibly broke out due to a short-circuit in the electricity board of the medicine ward.

A probe committee with the Chief Fire Officer and electrical safety officers as members has been constituted to find out the actual cause behind the incident.

Ganesh Kumar, the principal of the college, said the power supply to the ward was cut immediately which prevented the fire from spreading to other areas.

The ward was filled with smoke after mattresses kept inside it caught fire.

Kumar said mattresses were kept in the store of the ward because the medicine ward sometimes becomes overcrowded with patients.

He said a committee has been formed to sound out ways to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.

After getting the report of the committee, we are planning to propose to the government for an agency or staff to take care of fire and other safety measures, the principal added.

IG J Ravindra Gaur, Commissioner Anil Dhingra, SSP Gaurav Grover, SP City Krishna Kumar, and SO North Manoj Kumar Awasthi also rushed to the spot in the wake of the incident.