Fire at Services Hospital injures two

LAHORE - Days after the fire engulfed at Jinnah Hospitals intensive care unit which claimed three lives, another fire incident was reported on Tuesday in the store of orthopaedic operation theatre at the second floor of Services Hospital in which at least two people received minor burn injuries. Rescue officials and para-medical staff were of the view that the loss was worth Rs30 million. Eyewitnesses said that the fire-handling equipment was out of order which caused the operation theatre to suffer. But the young doctors present on the occasion believed it was due to short circuit. The doctors saved their lives by breaking out the glasses of the theatre comprising on four rooms, a nurse who was present near the operation theatre, requesting not to be named, revealed. She said that another nurse present in the room saved the life of the minor child who was being operated in theatre. According to her, Dr Ali Raza Hashmi was operating the kid when it caught fire. The flames were so intensive that the doctors present in the room tried their best to save their lives, leaving the child in the operation theatre, she added. She believed everyone was trying to rescue himself/herself from fire but no one bothered to pay heed towards the minor patient lying on the bed. An old nurse and an unknown person tried to pick the child from the bed, she claimed. She further said that she felt stinking smell when she visited the theatre at about 7:30am but she ignored her thinking of her severe headache. Shumaila Bibi, a patient, was of the view she along with her elder brother had just reached the spot when fire erupted in a store of Bano Miraj Orthopaedic Centre at the second floor of the hospital at about 9:45am. She maintained that the patients, visitors and para-medical staff rushed towards the safer places. Services Hospital Medical Superintendent (MS) Muhammad Javed said the doctors were planning to operate three patients when the incident occurred. We had already operated three other patients before the theatre caught fire, he added. Meanwhile, the MS constituted a committee comprising on Professor Sarfaraz, Professor Riaz Tasneem, Professor Muhammad Ali and Dr Saeed Ahmed to unearth the main cause behind the incident. When asked about the main cause behind the incident, the MS was ignorant. Earlier, Rescue 1122 officials, firefighters, Edhi ambulances and a large number of police personnel rushed to the spot. The fire was extinguished after the struggle of one and a half hour.

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