Odisha: Fire erupts at MKCG Medical College and Hospital

Berhampur: In an unfortunate incident, a fire broke out on the fifth floor of the MKCG Medical College and Hospital due to a likely short circuit at an operation theatre.

There was no injury or fatality due to the blaze, as patients and attendants were immediately evacuated from the fifth floor of the newly built super speciality building on the medical facility's campus, they said.

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"The fire is now completely under control, and we suspect that it originated from the ceiling of the Urology OT-1. There is no injury or casualty," said Santosh Kumar Mishra, Superintendent of the MKCG Medical College and Hospital.

Smoke was first spotted billowing out from the plastic surgery ward of the hospital, its Principal Abani Mishra said.

"All the patients and their attendants came out of the building safely," Abani Mishra said.

As many as 50 fire tenders were pressed into service to bring the blaze under control, officials said.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that Maharashtra had approved a fund of Rs 200 crore for works related to fire safety compliance across 500 hospitals in Maharashtra. The move comes after a fire audit had been conducted in nearly 500 hospitals due to repeated incidents of fire outbreaks across various hospitals in Maharashtra during the pandemic.

The state had issued Rs 19 crore for fire safety implementation so far. During the Covid pandemic in 2021, around 53 people, most of them who were Covid patients, died due to fire outbreaks in the hospitals in Maharashtra. The first incident of fire outbreak was reported at the Bhandara District Hospital on January 9, which led to the death of ten infants. Following that, multiple incidents had been reported in Mumbai.

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