A thick blanket of smoke engulfs the Government Medical College’s Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar, after a massive fire broke out, Saturday. (Screengrab)A massive fire broke out at Government Medical College’s Guru Nanak Dev Hospital building on Majitha Road in Amritsar after an electric transformer exploded in its car parking space on Saturday afternoon.
The fire started behind the X-ray department of the hospital. So far no causality has been reported. Many patients were rescued after the fire broke out.
Saturday’s hospital fire in Amritsar came a day after a major fire killed 27 people inside a four-storey commercial building near Mundka Metro station in National Capital Delhi.
Sources said that the fire broke out around 2pm. Officials of the hospital satted that the OPDs were deserted as it was a Saturday, but the health hub at the moment had around 600 patients admitted with it at various wards.
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A fire brigade team reached the spot and were trying to control the fire. A fire brigade official said that the blaze had been contained from spreading to other parts of the hospital.
Massive fire at Amritsar government medical college hospital, no casualty reported (Express video by Rana Simranjit Singh)
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Fire department officials said that the treatment of patients at the hospital was impacted by the blaze, while adding that the two-wheeler of an employee was charred in the fire beside the building and hospital infrastructure suffering major damage.
“The power transformer was the first thing that caught fire. Eight fire tenders rushed to the spot initially. The fire has been brought under control for now. No casualty has been reported,” said fire department officer, Lovepreet Singh.
AAP leader and Punjab Rajya Sabha MP, Harbhajan Singh, said that the matter will be throughly probed.”
On Saturday, eye witnesses present at the scene claimed that initial fire fighting exercise was delayed as the extinguishers installed at the hospital refused to work.
Officials said that it was fortunate that the fire started at the ground floor and was contained by the fire brigade team before it could reach the upper floors.
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