Fire broke out in Sentini Hospitals, located near Benz Circle, on Tuesday. However, there were no casualties as the hospital management hurriedly shifted the patients to the nearby hospitals.
The hospital staff, along with police and the fire personnel, used fire extinguishers and broke open the glass panes to let out smoke from the hospital.
According to the AP State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department officials, fire broke out in the UPS room on the first floor of the hospital around 1 p.m. Within minutes, smoke spread to the other rooms.
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“The fire control room was alerted at 1.10 p.m. and two fire tenders from the Main Control Room and Auto Nagar stations reached the spot and put out the fire in 15 minutes.
‘Smoke engulfed
the wards’
However, smoke engulfed the wards and the MRI scanning room on the first floor,” in-charge District Fire Officer B. Veerabhadra Rao said.
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Director General (Fire Services) K. Satyanarayana, Additional Director P.V. Ramana and other officials visited the spot and enquired about the reason for the mishap. Sentini Hospital General Manager G. Lakshmi Kumar explained that short-circuit could be the cause. Regional Fire Officer (RFO) S.V. Chowdary said it took two hours to control the smoke.
“As a precautionary measure, about 50 patients were rushed to the nearby hospitals. We are estimating the loss due to the mishap,” Mr. Kumar told The Hindu .
Patients’ attendants and the visitors ran helter-skelter and shouted for help when smoke billowed from the hospital building.
Thick smoke entered the wards, the scan room and the corridor, a visitor said.
This was the second fire mishap that occurred in hospitals in the city in a month. In December, fire broke out in Sridevi Eye Hospital.
Furniture and some machinery were completely gutted.