From Covid pan into the fire, 10 are dead

If the coronavirus was not lethal enough, as many as 10 lives were snuffed out by a fire at a star hotel which was serving as a makeshift Covid-19 facility in Vijaywada.

Panic-stricken inmates tried to flee the fire by either jumping from the upper storey of the building or tried to use a staircase, which, too, was enveloped in smoke. One COVID-19 patient was charred to death while nine others died of asphyxiation caused by the smoke. Thirty-two persons were rescued.

After the blaze broke out early Sunday, it was panic stations as several patients jumped from balconies on the upper floors; many were injured and a hotel employee broke his back trying to flee from the swirling flames.

The fire occurred at the Swarna Palace hotel, which was being used to shelter and treat people who had tested positive for the coronavirus. The police attributed the accident to a short circuit in an air-conditioner on the ground floor.

A criminal case has been registered under relevant sections of the IPC against the managements of Hotel Swarna Palace and Ramesh Hospitals, even as the state government instituted two committees to conduct a detailed probe into the cause of the fire and other lapses that led to the tragedy.

The state government said that negligence on the part of Ramesh Hospital in running the Covid Care Centre at the hotel was prima facie established, reports PTI.

"Swarna Palace was a fire trap. It did not even have proper exit points and that made the rescue operation very difficult and we had to use ladders to bring down the trapped people," an official told PTI.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced ex gratia payment of Rs 50 lakh each to the next of kin of the 10 victims. PM Modi rang up Reddy and enquired about the incident. Reddy told Modi that a private hospital had taken the star hotel on lease to treat Covid-19 patients.

It is understood that 31 Covid-19 patients and six staff members each of the hospital and the hotel were on the premises when the fire broke out in the reception lobby on the ground floor and spread to the first floor. (The hospital and the hotel staff members are safe.)

At least 15 private hospitals have leased star hotels in Vijayawada city to run paid Covid Care Centres, as "extension centres" of the hospitals. "We are examining whether these centres had the requisite permissions and the specified facilities,’’ an official said.