HYDERABAD: According to the Telangana State Disaster Response & Fire Services’ guidelines for tackling a fire breakout in hospitals, every hospital should have at least 12 mock drills per year for the hospital staff to be able to seamlessly carry out any emergency evacuation.
Citing hospitals as an infrastructure “where a significant number of occupants are incapable of self-preservation”, the fire department’s manual reads, “Every hospital must have a fire and evacuation plan, including a disaster plan with which all personnel must be familiar. In addition, all staff of a hospital should be trained to use fire extinguishers, hose reels and hydrant systems.
They must also know how to sound an alarm, move or evacuate patients, and contain the fire.” Hospitals also carry the added risk of fires through human negligence while handling bio-waste, chemicals and other inflammable medical equipment Therefore, proper equipment helps to substantially decrease the damage to both human life and hospital facilities.
In terms of infrastructure, the guidelines also note that the basic fire safety requirements for a multi-storeyed hospital building as per National Building Code, includes fire extinguishers, hose reel on all floors, a wet riser system with landing values on all floors, yard hydrant system, automatic sprinkler system, manually operated electric fire alarm systems, automatic detection and alarm system, underground and static water storage tank. Most of them are either missing in all government hospitals or are defunct.