Thrissur: In swift and coordinated operation, nurses and doctors along with the personnel of the fire and rescue department and the police evacuated 117 patents including 27 in the ICU and four on the ventilator and averted a massive tragedy after fire broke out on the first floor of Sun Medical and Research Centre (erstwhile Heart Hospital) in Thrissur in the wee hours of Friday. The evacuation was completed in 45 minutes and the patients were shifted to nearby hospitals in one-and-a-half hours. Electric short circuit is suspected to be the reason for the fire breakout in a room where computers and printers were allegedly dumped carelessly.
The toxic smoke started emanating from a The toxic smoke started emanating from a partitioned small room on the first floor of the hospital at around 1.30 a.m. and spread to the nearby rooms and patients' ward triggering panic. The patients and the bystanders who inhaled the smoke stared showing uneasiness. The Thrissur Fire Station situated half-a-kilometer away from the hospital was alerted and they responded in less than two minutes. The evacuation was completed in 45 minutes and patients were shifted to nearby hospticla by 3 a.m. As the smoke stared spreading to the second and the third floor, the panic stricken patients and bystanders started crying for help.
The partitioned room on the first floor which got gutted in the fire. (Photo: DC)
Meanwhile, the power supply to the first floor where the fire broke was disrupted. Those patients who could walk started moving out of the hospital with the help of the bystanders. "Two firemen wearing breathing apparatus approached the room from where the toxic smoke was emanating and put off the fire using the water from the fire system of the hospital. “Later, nearly 25 fire force personnel along with 75 policemen and duty nurses conducted the evacuation by shifting patients to bed and stretchers put up on the courtyard and parking lot of the hospital," leading fireman at Thrissur station Anil Kumar T told DC.
"The hospital authorities asked the doctors to soon report for duty and a total of 22 doctors residing in Thrissur and nearby areas reached the hospital to guide the evacuation team by verifying the condition of the patients," HR manger of the hospital Jimmy John said. Soon with the coordination of the hospital authorities and the police control room, as many as 40 ambulances rushed to the hospital and started shifting patients to the nearly six hospitals in Thrissur town without causing trouble to the patients, East CI K.C. Sethu told DC. Patients on ventilator on second floor of the hospital were taken out only after ICU ambulances were arranged for them. Rescuers took special care to prevent smoke entering the ICU and ventilator rooms, Anil Kumar said. A woman and her baby who were standing on the balcony on second floor to escape from the smoke were brought down on the ladder of the fire force. Thrissur Range IG M R Ajith Kumar, commissioner Narayanan T, ACP P Wahid headed the operations for evacuation.
