Fire breaks out in Victoria Hospital due to electrical short circuit, 26 patients moved to safety

BENGALURU: A fire broke out in the block housing the burns ward of Victoria Hospital in the wee hours on Tuesday, leaving beds and books completely burnt. The fire, which broke out around 3 am due to suspected electrical short circuit, was later put out by the Fire and Emergency Services personnel.

The fire is suspected to have broken out in a refrigerator on the ground floor and quickly spread. As soon as the fire was noticed, the hospital authorities move out 26 patients — 14 male, five female and seven children — to another block.

Dr Divya, who was on duty at that time, was the first to notice the fire and she immediately alerted the hospital staff who tried to put out the fire. She also informed her higher-ups who sounded a code red alert, called the police and the fire brigade and got the patients shifted out.

Dr Divya, who was on night shift, had noticed smoke coming from the seminar room. She and the hospital staff managed to move out the patients, including those who were in the ICU, within 30 minutes. “We didn’t want the patients to suffer more trauma, so we quickly shifted them to another block”, she said.

Head of the burns division, Dr Yogeshappa said, “The short circuit occurred in the switch board in the seminar room to which a refrigerator was connected. After Dr Divya informed us, we sounded a red code alert and our staff too tried to put out the fire. When the fire could not be controlled, the patients were shifted out in 10-15 minutes”.