Fire safety violations simmer in hyderabad city

Hyderabad: The fire at the neonatal ICU of Shine Children Hospital at LB Nagar brings out the lacunae in the fire safety systems at hospitals in the city. In the tragic incident, a three-month-old baby boy died and four others injured after a fire broke out at a private children's hospital in the wee hours of Monday. The situation at the government hospitals is even worse. Many do not have enough fire extinguishers and those present are not in working condition either.

There are 250 fire extinguishers at Gandhi Hospital, but a majority are said to be not in working condition. Dr Gupta, RMO, Gandhi Hospital, said, "A sump is being constructed behind the girl's hostel to store water and there are five tanks on the roof." Dr Pandu Naik of Osmania General Hospital says, "In the new building there are fire extinguishers but none in the old building."

He reasons, "The hospital was built a hundred years ago with a lot of open spaces and there were no fire extinguishers." The same is the case with Niloufer Hospital. The new block that was opened two years ago has fire extinguishers, but the old building has just a couple. Dr Jayalalitha of MNJ Cancer Hospital says, "An inspection by the Fire Services Department was done six months ago and training to the staff was also given."

Enquiries, however, revealed that the staff feigns ignorance about training and says they have no clue how to deal if there is an emergency. In most cases, the fire extinguishers are placed at the hospitals but there is no training and awareness programmes for staff on a regular basis. Most of the hospitals do not have a disaster response system in place. The absence of smoke alarms, emergency exits and lack of water in the hydrants is a cause for concern, say fire department officials.

There is no regular training of staff, including doctors and nurses to tackle an emergency, at many hospitals in the city. Fire department officials say that in most hospitals, the staff is not prepared to meet any eventuality.

Mohanan V K, who worked in the Middle East hospitals in fire safety department, says, "The absence of safety regulation and prevention mechanism is the biggest problem that needs immediate attention." Senior doctors at government hospitals, too, are not trained. It is usually the lower rung staff that is trained in fire safety.

Meanwhile, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) disaster management wing is issuing notices to 1,600 hospitals under its jurisdiction and embarking on massive safety assessment.