By Alok Mathur
Days after a 23 year old man died after his oxygen mask caught fire in Kota, another fire broke out in the oncology day care ward of Rajasthan's largest children hospital – J K Lone Hospital in Jaipur. No casualty has been reported. As many as 30 children admitted in that ward had to be evacuated and shifted to other wards. The fire broke out from AC duct and fire brigade had to press in for extinguishing the fire which took two and a half hours.
The ward was newly constructed and the reason behind this accident is still to be ascertained. The government has set up a committee which has been asked to submit its report in three days.
Principal secretary of Medical Education T. Ravikanth visited the hospital and enquired about the wellbeing of the children who were shifted post the incident. He directed officials to ensure safety of all the patients admitted in the hospital and take every precaution to rule out such incidents.
According to officials, the fire-fighting equipment in the hospital was not working properly.
“The fire extinguishers in the hospital was not functioning properly. Pump set was not working and water was not adequate in the storage. We faced lot of difficulty in dousing the fire and used three fire-fighting vehicles to control the flames,” said Devendra Meena, chief Fire officer in Nagar Nigam Heritage.
This the second incident in less than a week in the state government run hospital where fire played havoc. Few days back a 23-year-old man died after his oxygen mask caught fire during treatment in the New Medical College Hospital in Rajasthan's Kota. Probe is being conducted to find out the reason behind the fire.
The Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission has taken cognizance of the case of a patient who died after his oxygen mask allegedly caught fire during treatment at a government hospital in Kota.
The State Human Rights Commission chairman Justice GK Vyas described the incident as “serious” and issued a notice to the Kota Superintendent of Police, Kota Chief Health Officer (CHO) and Principal of Kota New Medical College Hospital where the patient died on Wednesday night.
The Commission has directed the district administration to present the ‘action taken report' and the factual report of the incident before it by July 24.
Alok Mathur is a law graduate. Journalism is his first love which he now pursues in the latter half of his career. Controversies and crime are the right triggers for him.
