Most hospitals in Vizag district flout fire safety norms

Visakhapatnam: Vulnerable locations in and around the city, including hospitals, schools and function halls do not abide by the mandatory fire safety measures. According to the fire service department, reports that over 260 hospitals in Vizag city have not obtained no objection certificate (NOC) from the fire services department.

The fire services personnel have geared up to issue notices to the management of the hospitals and also will write a letter to District Medical and Health officials to take action against them.

It may recalled that tense situation prevailed at a private hospital ‘My Cure' located at Maharanipeta in the city in October 2018 after a fire broke out at the Cath lab in the hospital due to electrical short circuit. However, no one was injured in the incident due to the alertness of the staff and the hospital management shifted about 70 patients to various hospitals. 

A major fire accident was averted recently at an operation theatre in KGH in Vizag city with the timely intervention of the staff present. In another incident, the entire paediatric ward of Victoria General Hospital popular as Gosha Hospital in the city was gutted. Luckily, there were no casualties and injuries, due to the immediate rescue operations taken up by the staff. 

In the district, there are about 340 hospitals. Out of them, only 80 hospitals have fire NOC and over 260, including 20 government hospitals have not obtained the NOC, said District Fire Officer BVS Ram Prakash and Regional Fire Safety Officer GVMC E Swamy. “We will issue notices to violators and will take steps to take action against the violators,” they added.