Cuttack: Director General of fire services Binay Kumar Behera Friday said the SUM hospital authorities had informed the fire service officials at least 45 minutes after the hospital caught fire October 17.
Briefing the media here, Behera said, “Many lives would have been saved, had the hospital authorities contacted us earlier.”
The revelation of Behera has exposed the hospital authorities’ attempt to hush up the incident. Meanwhile, there is demand for a probe as to why the hospital authorities had delayed calling the firemen.
According to Behera, “Dousing the blaze took a lot of time as there was not adequate stock of water at the hospital. It was mentioned in the FIR lodged at Khandagiri police station.”
The hospital authorities had violated the guidelines for installation of 25,000 capacity water tank on the premises. Besides, sprinklers were not installed near the dialysis ward and ICUs which bore the brunt the most.
The hospital did not have fire alarm system.
“We will cooperate in the ongoing investigation about the mismanagement at the hospital,” Behera added.
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