15 Covid patients die in Virar hospital fire
NAVI MUMBAI: Fifteen Covid patients were charred to death after a fire broke out on the second floor of a four-storey private hospital, Vijay Vallabh Covid Care Hospital, in Virar early Friday morning, officials said.
The wife of one of the patients, Chandni Doshi, 40, died of shock minutes after hearing that her husband Kumar Kishore Doshi, 45, was killed in the blaze. She was being treated for Covid at another hospital, Jeevdani, in the vicinity. They have a 14-year-old daughter.
A short-circuit may have been behind the fire, which broke out around 3.15am, according to preliminary findings by the VasaiVirar fire brigade.
“There were 17 patients in the ICU, of whom 14 have been confirmed dead,” said Dilip Palav, chief fire officer, Vasai-Virar civic fire brigade. “Around 10 tenders were pressed into service, and the fire was controlled within 10 minutes,” he added. Another person was confirmed dead late on Friday.
Eyewitnesses said the fire spread quickly. “I had come to the hospital to admit my friend’s mother. I saw the ward completely in smoke, and later the charred bodies,” said Avinash Patil. Tempers ran high in the area after the incident, with the relatives of the victims expressing their anguish against the government and the hospital administration.
Dr Dilip Shah, CEO of the hospital, said he was mobbed by agitated relatives. “We are cooperating with the police, who are checking documents of the hospital,” he said.