Delay in calling fire staff costs 10 lives
Fire brigade reached the hotel 4 minutes after receiving call, brought patients to safety using ladders
The long delay in alerting the fire personnel about the fire at Swarna Palace, a temporary private
Covid-19 treatment facility, has cost 10 Coronavirus patients their lives.
Fire officials said they received information about the mishap at 5.09 am on Sunday. By the time they reached the venue, thick fumes of smoke and a raging fire had engulfed the building. This indicated that the fire had broken about 30–35 minutes before they got intimation about the fire.
Based on information available from the fire personnel, the fire erupted on the ground floor near the reception. It soon spread and turned into a wildfire because of inflammable material like wood, curtains and other materials.
As thick smoke and fire had reached the first floor from the ground floor, even engulfing the staircase, there was no way out for patients to escape. A
Covid-19 patient was found charred to death on the first floor while seven more bodies were found on the second floor.
There was a huge oxygen tank kept at the reception for giving oxygen to Covid19 patients upon their arrival for treatment at the facility. It is suspected that oxygen leaked from this tank, causing the fire to rage further.
Fortunately, the oxygen tank did not explode. There were also cooking gas cylinders in the kitchen on the ground floor. Luckily, the fire was brought under control before it could reach the kitchen. Otherwise, it could have been a major disaster.
Regional fire officer G. Srinivasulu said, “We received information about the fire mishap at
5.09 am and reached the hotel by 5.13 am. As everyone, including the staff at the reception, had been fast asleep when the short circuit occurred, nearly
30-35 minutes were lost by the time they alerted us about the fire. When we reached, the fire had engulfed the ground, first, second and third floors. We could rescue Covid-19 patients using ladders.”
The Krishna district administration has sent all 40 fire personnel, who took part in the rescue of
Covid-19 patients at Swarna Palace, to a quarantine centre near Gannavaram.