13 die in ICU blaze at Mumbai hospital

Mumbai: Thirteen Covid-19 patients died in a blaze at the intensive care unit of a private hospital in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Friday, police said.

There were 90 patients in the hospital, 18 of them in ICU when the fire broke out after a blast in the AC unit, an official said. The dead include five women and eight men. TV visuals showed the smoke-filled ICU in a disarray after the blaze, with the ceiling falling off in some places, beds and other furniture strewn around and kin of the deceased wailing outside the hospital.

The fire broke out in the ICU on the second floor of the four-storeyed Vijay Vallabh Hospital at Virar shortly after 3 am, an official said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze at 5.20 am, he added.

There were 18 patients in the ICU when the fire broke out, the official said. Five patients were rescued and shifted to other hospitals in the area, he added.

The other patients in the hospital were not affected as the damage was confined to the ICU, he added. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe into the tragedy, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said. Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya said authorities should check if there was a fire safety audit of the hospital, which is over 50 km from Mumbai.

The tragedy comes two days after 22 Covid-19 patients who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen supply stopped suddenly due to a malfunction in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik.

District Disaster Control Cell chief Vivekanand Kadam said the Virar hospital fire was preceded by an explosion in the AC unit of the intensive care unit.