- SHORT-CIRCUIT suspected as the cause of deadly JAIPUR fire.
- Blaze started in the intensive care unit of Sawai Man Singh Hospital
- Forensic team to determine the exact cause of the fire.
New Delhi: A fire from the hospital caused by an alleged short circuit killed at least six patients in a trauma center in the largest hospital managed by the state of northwest of Jaipur in India, and injured five, officials announced on Monday.
The fire started in the intensive care unit (USI) of Sawai Man Singh hospital, “releasing toxic gases,” said Anurag Dhakad in the hospital at the hospital Ani press agency, adding that a short circuit was the suspected cause.
“Five patients are still essential,” he said, while 13 had been safely evacuated from the two hospital districts in the capital of Rajasthan, which attracts patients from the whole state of the desert.
The fire teams arrived within 20 minutes after the fire started late on Sunday at the Usi in neurosurgery, the Superintendent of Sushil Kumar Bhati said the agency.
Most of the hospital’s equipment was emptied within two hours it took to master the fire, however, the broadcaster NDTV said.
Jaipur police chief Biju George Joseph said that a medico-legal investigation would determine the exact cause.
The government of Rajasthan, whose capital is Jaipur, has created a panel to investigate the cause, Ani said.
He will study the hospital’s fire -fighting agreements and management response, as well as steps to avoid similar incidents, added the agency.
Similar hospitals in India have been attributed to short circuits in electronic equipment.
Ten newborns died of burns and suffocation after a fire in November in a neonatal intensive care unit in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
In May 2024, six newborns died in a fire in a baby care hospital in New Delhi, the capital.
