HYDERABAD: Four infants, who were undergoing treatment at Krishna Children’s Hospital at Nampally, had a narrow escape from a pre-dawn fire accident in the building on Monday. According to sources, the incident happened at around 2:30 am.
The infants and their attendants were evacuated to a nearby private hospital before the fire-fighting team reached the spot. As the incident happened while everyone was asleep, those who were in the hospital did not realize that a fire had broken out until the inmates started suffocating due to the thick fumes of smoke inside the packed building.
The fire reportedly broke out in the spacious hall of the hospital and was put off before it spread to the other parts of the hospital. The beds made out of coconut coir helped the flames to spread fast. The post-natal ward, where the infants were resting, remained intact.
“Rather than the fire, it was the thick fumes of smoke that panicked the inmates. Soon after reaching the spot, we shattered the glass panes to vent out smoke,” said Chandrashekar, the Assembly fire station officer.
Short circuit?
According to State Assembly fire station officer Chandrashekar, the fire fighters suspect the source of the fire to be an electrical short-circuit. In last October, a similar fire accident which occurred at the post-natal ward of the Shine Children’s Hospital in LB Nagar had claimed the life of an infant