Six patients died after a fire broke out at the Sawai Man Singh hospital in Jaipur in the early hours of Monday.
Jaipur: A massive fire blazed through the neuro ICU of Jaipur’s state-run Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in the dead of the night, killing six patients on critical care support, officials said on Monday.
Eleven patients were being treated in the ICU at the time, said trauma centre in-charge Dr Anurag Dakhad. The fire, which erupted in the storage area around midnight, is suspected to have been caused by a short circuit.
The flames spread fast and rescuers could pull out only five patients.
“Six people, two women and four men died, and five are undergoing treatment,” Dhakad said. “Fourteen other patients were admitted in a different ICU, and all were successfully evacuated to safer locations,” he added.
Walls blackened with smoke and soot, equipment twisted out of shape in the heat and shattered glass told the tale of the horrors that unfolded when the fire broke out.
Though some reports claimed eight patients died in the fire, Dhakad and hospital superintendent Sushil Bhati maintained that the number of deaths was six.
Expressing grief over the tragedy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an X post in Hindi, “The loss of lives due to a fire tragedy at a hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan, is deeply saddening. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon.”
The state government has formed a high-level committee to probe the incident.
SMS hospital is Rajasthan’s biggest government health facility, treating patients from across the state and elsewhere.
The deceased were identified as Pintu from Sikar, Dilip and Bahadur from Jaipur, and Shrinath, Rukmini and Kusuma from Bharatpur.
Anguished relatives held a brief protest and alleged that authorities were negligent, ignoring warnings and fleeing instead of rescuing the ailing and sick.
Among them was Rukmini’s son Joginder.
“My mother was recovering and was supposed to be fine.
