‘Ward filled with smoke, couldn’t find my mother’: Jaipur hospital fire that killed 6 spread within minutes

The morning after six patients died when a fire broke out in the ICU of the Trauma Centre at Sawai Mansingh (SMS) Hospital in Jaipur late on Sunday night, witnesses and relatives of victims described the chaos.

According to hospital officials, the fire broke out at 11.20 pm in the storeroom of the neuro ICU ward in the Trauma Centre, where paper, ICU equipment, and blood sampler tubes were stored.

On the second floor, the ICU ward with 11 beds was completely burnt. In the morning at 7 am, an FSL team reached the ward and police personnel guided the team to the room, which was strewn with shattered glass and burnt beds.

Lekhraj, son of Kushma Devi (55), who was admitted to the ward, told “My mother was admitted here and I saw sparks coming out of the store room. I told the hospital staff that there is a short circuit in the store room, but they told me it was nothing serious. Within 15 minutes, the fire broke out and the entire room was filled with smoke. I could not locate my mother. I tried to enter the room, but it was filled with smoke. I was shouting my mother’s name and tried to look for hospital staff, but none of them were present at the time… Now, it is morning, but I have not seen my mother’s body. Just read her name in the list of victims.”

Gurpreet Arora, whose relative Rukmani Kaur was admitted to the hospital, told that he received a call from his cousin that the hospital was on fire and that he was not able to reach his mother.

“When I reached the hospital from Bharatpur at 5 am on Monday, I saw my cousin completely out of breath. He went inside the trauma room multiple times before he was able to get his mother out. Due to the smoke, he was not able to breathe, and later we admitted him to the hospital as well. My relative passed away after some time due to excessive smoke, but we have not received the body,” said Gurpreet.

Relatives of the victims are now protesting, demanding to see the remains of their family members and chanting slogans against the government. The protesters claimed that hospital staff were not present at the time of the fire.

Adjacent to the trauma ward that caught fire, other trauma wards were on alert last night. A nursing staffer at the orthopaedic ward, Sagar Meena, said they opened all the windows of their ward.

“We counselled the patients, telling them that if the need arises, they will have to vacate the ward. Many of us, including the ward boys, went inside the burning ICU ward to save the patients. It is not right to say that hospital staff were not present because some of our ward boys were burnt as well. A lot of us were not able to breathe. It was such a chaotic situation. We have been working continuously since last night,” said Meena.

A senior doctor at the Trauma Centre said the fire is suspected to have been caused by a short circuit. At the time of the incident, there were 11 patients in one ICU, and 13 patients in the adjacent ICU.

A constable at the SMS police station, Hari Mohan, was visiting the hospital to get a medical checkup done when the incident unfolded. He told, “The entire ward was filled with smoke. There was no way to get inside. My eyes were burning, and I wrapped a wet cloth around my mouth. Other police station staff also reached the hospital, and we entered the ward. The beds were not visible, and after a lot of struggle, we just took the patients along with the bedsheets and got them out of the ward. I couldn’t breathe for a few hours after this.”

There is only one door to get inside the ICU ward. According to the employees, if there was another door, they would have been able to get some patients out.

A hospital employee said on the condition of anonymity that this ward is for severely injured and serious patients. He said the smoke made their conditions worse, causing many to die.