Panel To Probe Apollo Hospitals Fire

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has formed a panel to probe the fire mishap in the Apollo Hospitals in the Odisha capital on Saturday morning.

Informing the media, Khurda collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra said the three-member committee headed by Additional District Medical Officer (ADMO) will probe  the causes of the outbreak of fire and submit a report by February 6.

The Committee has been given the terms of reference to probe into the technical aspects, he added.

The fire broke out in the battery rooms (maintenance room) on the fifth floor of the hospital at about 11 am.

However, the fire-fighting unit of the hospitals sprang into action and evacuated 26 patients from three ICUs. They were later shifted to other private hospitals in the city.

Apart from this, patients from other wards were safely brought to the ground floor as thick smoke spread in the hospital.

The two fire brigade units, which rushed to the hospitals to douse the flames, had to broke the glass window panels to release the smoke.

Following the incident, Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty and DCP Anup Sahu and senior Fire officers had arrived at the hospital to take stock of the situation.

Talking to mediapesons, the Police Commissioner said while the Apollo Hospitals authorities will probe the cause of the fire, the State Police will also probe whether the Hospital abides by the fire safety protocol. “We will also want to know whether there is regular fire audit in the hospital,” he pointed out.

 Later in the day, Director General, Fire Services, BK Sharma had said the Fire Officer, Central Range, will conduct a thorough probe into the incident.

“The investigation would focus on three major aspects. We will have to see whether the hospital authorities have adequate fire-fighting equipment and whether the hospital staff had followed the rules while shifting the patients from one ward to the other ward. Apart from this, we will look into the housekeeping methods adopted by the authorities. If any deviation in these three aspects is found, appropriate action would be taken,” he had pointed out.