Fire At Delhi's Lok Nayak Hospital, Around 50 Patients, Staff Evacuated

Around 50 people, including patients and staff members, at the Lok Nayak Hospital in Central Delhi were evacuated after a fire broke out in the seven-storey emergency block building, an official said on Tuesday.

Chief of Delhi Fire Services Atul Garg said they received a call about the blaze from the hospital at around 10.18 pm on Monday.

A total of 10 fire engines were immediately pressed into service. The fire broke out due to a short circuit in the OPD main casualty ward. It took almost an hour to extinguish the blaze completely, he said.

Around 50 people, including patients and hospital staff, were evacuated, Garg said.

According to police, the fire broke out on the third-floor emergency ward. They rushed to the spot and flames were found in a shaft of cables on the third and fourth floors.

"Fire tenders were provided a clear passage up to the emergency ward. Police and hospital staff evacuated the patients from the ground floor. The fire was soon extinguished. No one was injured," a senior police officer said.

A senior doctor at the LNJP Hospital said, "It would have been a major accident had our staff not been alert."

"The fire broke out on the third floor of the seven-storey emergency block building, and our staff responded to the fire immediately and also alerted the Delhi Fire authorities," the doctor said.

As hospital staff are trained to respond in such a situation and mock drills have been held in the past, many of them used fire extinguishers themselves to douse the flames before the fire tenders reached, the hospital officials said.

The cause of the fire is suspected to be a short circuit in a part of the emergency block, which houses the OPD ward and the casualty ward adjoining it, they said.

"There has been no casualty," the doctor said.