Mumbra hospital fire: Quick thinking saves 9 lives

At least four people including a senior citizen were killed when a massive fire engulfed the Prime Criticare Hospital at Kausa in Mumbra early on Wednesday Fire officials said the fire started in the hospitalrsquos meter room on the ground floor Before the firemen arrived at the scene a lawyer residing nearby rushed to rescue the patients He broke open a window on the rear of the hospital and helped evacuate nine patients one of whom died laterA policeman inspects the burnt Prime Criticare HospitalThe fire broke out at 340 am and was controlled within two hours by 530 am There were no Coronavirus patients in the hospital officials added More than 20 patients admitted to different wards were evacuated according to the Thane police and fire brigade officialsLocal MLA and Housing Minister Dr Jitendra Awhad who had rushed to the spot said ldquoThe cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained The police and the local municipal corporation will give the details soon Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was informed late in the night The family of each deceased will be given a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and those injured will get Rs 1 lakh each and a highlevel inquiry committee has been constituted to find the cause of the firerdquo he saidAdvocate Farhan Ansari shows the window through which he entered the Prime Criticare Hospital at KausaldquoLocals helped very much in shifting the patients before the official machinery arrived The fire started in the material kept near the meter room on the ground floor The smoke and the fire spread up from there to the first floor Four people admitted to the ICU have died They didnrsquot die of the fire but while being shifted to another hospital Of the 14 other patients those who were well enough were shifted to other hospitals and the rest were dischargedrdquo said chief of Thane Regional Disaster Management Cell RDMC Santosh KadamldquoThe fire was extinguished early but the smoke and suffocation led to issuesrdquo local Senior Inspector Madhukar Kad saidLawyer saves eightA quick decision of not waiting for the fire brigade and breaking open the grill on the backside of the hospital instead saved eight livesAdvocate Farhan Ansari 29 who is observing daily fasts amid the month of Ramzan lives in a building next to the hospital He had woken up to have his predawn meal sehri and was about to sleep off when he heard the screams for help from the hospital and saw the smokeFarhan Ansari also moved the oxygen cylinders kept outside the hospitalldquoI heard people shouting for help and rushed towards the window to check Seeing the smoke coming out of the hospital I immediately rushedrdquo said AnsariAnsari said it was difficult to enter the hospital from the front side as the fire was intense ldquoI went behind and had to break the grill and glass door A nurse told me there were many patients stuck inside along with relatives Waiting for the fire brigade to come meant losing their lives I decided to go inside and rescue as many as I could before the fire brigade camerdquo said AnsariAnsari managed to rescue nine patients of which one died after being shifted to a nearby hospital ldquoIt was all dark All I knew was these patients were critical gasping for breath and were on oxygen With the help of others I managed to rescue nine of them It is sad that one of them diedrdquo said Ansari He also shifted the oxygen cylinders lying at the backside of the hospital ldquoThere were around 35 oxygen cylinders On priority we removed the cylinders It could otherwise have been more disastrousrdquo said Ansari340 amTime when the fire occurred14No of people who survived the incident