Rajkot : Additional Chief Secretary of the Panchayat Department A. K. Rakesh has handed over the investigation report to the General Administration Department regarding the death of five corona patients in a fire that broke out at Uday Sivananda Hospital in COVID Care Center, Rajkot on the night of November 9. The report is prepared with the help of the Forensic Science Laboratory and a report from the Rajkot office of the Chief Electrical Inspector. Top sources say the three reports have the same information that the fire seems to have been caused by medical equipment and not by a short circuit.
The report did not name the medical equipment, but sources said that the heater-humidifier in the L&T company’s Mac High Flow Nestle Canula type ventilator overheated, igniting a spark and catching fire immediately due to a supply of oxygen. Given that the report does not even mention any negligence on the part of the hospital authorities, attending doctors or local authorities, the whole exercise seems to be an attempt to appease the hospital, doctors and officials.
The investigation report also states that on the first floor of Uday Shivananda Hospital, a wing of the ICU where 6 corona patients were undergoing treatment, HFNC was placed between bed no. 102 and bed no. – 103, in which the fire broke out. The report also said that the ICU had fire extinguishers but could not function due to smoke from the fire.
