VIJAYAWADA: All personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), fire service and police departments, who participated in the rescue operation in the hotel fire on Sunday, reportedly urged their higher officials to send them to special quarantine as they were exposed to Covid-19.
Some said they were unaware that the hotel housed a paid quarantine facility for Covid-19 patients.
Without wearing PPE and other protective gear, the personnel participated in the rescue operation.
Police who helped in rushing the injured to hospitals, came in direct contact with corona patients.
“As part of our duty, we need to go to all places to rescue people during fire mishaps. Our personnel came in direct contact with Covid patients while shifting the injured to hospitals,” said a fire officer.
He also said there is a need to set up a special quarantine centre for the personnel in order to protect their families.
“When we requested our higher-ups in this regard, they told us to undergo home isolation. This won’t help in preventing the virus from spreading to our families if we are affected,” another official opined.
Additional District Fire Officer A Sekhar said the personnel were asked to undergo self-isolation and Covid-19 tests will be conducted on them on Wednesday.
Commissioner of Police B Sreenivasulu also said corona tests will be conducted on all the personnel who took part in the rescue operation, as a precautionary measure.
Fire mishap victims:
Dokku Siva Brahmaiah (58) of Machilipatnam
Potluri Poornachandra Rao (78) of Ghantasala mandal, Krishna district
Majji Gopi (54) of Machilipatnam
Sunkara Babu Rao (68) of Vijayawada
Kosaraju Suvarnalatha (42) of Ponnur, Guntur district
Maddali Ramesh (57) of Vijayawada
Sabbithi Ratna Abraham (48) of Jaggaiahpet and his wife S Rajakumari (40)
Duddu Venkata Narasimha Pavan Kumar (30) and his mother Duddu Venkata Jayalaxmi (48) from Kandukur of Prakasam district