Civil Hospital sans fire NOC, patients’ safety at stake

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 17

The Thursday’s fire incident at the Civil Hospital has brought to the fore the careless attitude of the hospital authorities and how they are endangering the lives of the patients as the hospital sans no objection certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department.

On Thursday, it took one hour to control the fire and any untoward incident could have happened.

Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Bhupinder Singh said, “The Civil Hospital has failed to procure the NOC for many years. The NOC certificate has to be renewed every year, but the hospital is lacking in the required fire-fighting arrangements on its premises. We have written to the hospital authorities to ensure that all fire-fighting equipments are available at the hospital, but to no avail.”

He further said the new block (Mother and Child Hospital) had the NOC.

A class IV employees, on the condition of anonymity, said the new block had the NOC, but some issues need to be addressed there as well. “Some of the cylinders of fire extinguishers are filled with dry powder which could prove fatal in case of fire. Although hydrants are installed at the hospital, there is no trained staff to operate them,” he added.

Balram, a patient, who was at the hospital when the fire broke out, said had someone not noticed the fire, it could have proved fatal as the room was locked.

“Patients were scared after the incident, and it took nearly an hour to doze off the flames,” he said.