Fire breaks out in swine flu ward of Ahmedabad's civil hospital

AHMEDABAD: A fire erupted at the isolation ward for swine flu patients at Civil Hospital in the Asarwa area of the city on Sunday afternoon.
The fire caused panic among patients and their relatives. The fire started from an air-conditioner in the ward.
“The fire triggered from air-conditioner unit in D-9 (isolation ward) at around 3.30pm on Sunday. We have doused the fire with extinguisher in around an hour as the fire was not so intense.There was no injury nor casualty reported in the fire,” said a fire official of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Service (AFES).
Superintendent of Civil Hospital, Dr M M Prabhakar, confirmed the incident and said that the fire took place in the split AC. In the isolation ward, two patients had died on the same day and the authorities claimed that the mortalities did not have any relation with the fire. When asked about the casualty, he said, “The death did not occur due to fire but due to swine flu. The deaths occurred an hour before the fire incident occured.”
Sources in the Civil Hospital said that the patients had to suffer due to sudden spark in the AC unit and the smoke which filled inside the D-9 ward. An AFES official said that the hospital authorities should have taken greater care to prevent fire. The fire occurred due to short circuit in the AC unit where in a local electricity supply should have been cut off when the sparking happened.