The fire in a COVID-19 hotel facility in Vijayawada rises questions over the fire safety measures at the COVID-19 hotels and COVID-19 Care Centres in the city.
There are 79 hospitals, hotels and centres treating COVID-19 patients in the district as of now.
While major hospitals, hotels have No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the Fire Department, there are doubts over the safety norms followed at the COVID-19 Care Centres set up in school/college hostels, old buildings and community health centres (CHCs). Many hospitals in the city have also taken a few hotels on lease to treat their patients.
Meanwhile the district administration is on its toes, in the wake of the fire at a COVID-19 facility in Vijayawada on Sunday in which 10 persons died.
District Collector V. Vinay Chand has constituted 26 teams with nearly 100 officials of various departments to inspect all the hospitals and centres treating COVID-19 patients in the district. He directed the teams to submit reports along with certification of electrical connection and also safety measures being taken up at the hospitals/centres within two days.
One of a COVID-19 survivor from the city, P. Surendra (name changed), who stayed in a centre in Madhurawada area, said that he did not notice any fire extinguishers at the centre. “Since it was a residential school all the bunker beds were placed close to one another in a very congested manner. There was not even two feet distance between the beds. If any fire breaks out, it would be very difficult to escape,” he said.
Narrow staircases
Some centres also lack proper entry-exit points, and have narrow staircases, which could pose a problem in the event of any untoward incident. District Fire Officer B.V.S. Ram Prakash said that most of the hospitals, hotels and centres which come under their purview have adopted fire safety measures and are safe.
However, an inspection would be conducted jointly with the electrical department to check whether there are any faults, he said.
According to him, there should be an emergency team or the staff at the COVID-19 care centres should be given basic fire fighting skills like using fire extinguishers, which should be done during the first five to 10 minutes of the accident.
