At least seven patients died after a massive fire broke out late Sunday night in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the trauma centre at the state run Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur. The blaze, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, started on the second floor of the building and quickly filled the ICU with toxic smoke. Several medical records, ICU equipment, and blood sample tubes were destroyed.
"Our trauma centre has two ICUs on the second floor, a trauma ICU and a semi-ICU with 24 patients in total: 11 in the trauma ICU and 13 in the semi-ICU. A short circuit occurred in the trauma ICU, and the fire spread rapidly, releasing toxic gases. Most of the critical patients were comatose. Our trauma team, nursing officers, and ward staff immediately began evacuating patients on trolleys and managed to shift as many as possible to another location. Six patients were extremely critical; despite prolonged CPR, we could not save them. Of the deceased, two were women and four were men. Five other patients remain critical. Altogether, we evacuated all 24 patients from the two ICUs," said SMS Hospital Trauma centre Incharge Anurag Dhakad. “Most of the critical patients were comatose. Our trauma centre team, our nursing officers, and ward boys, immediately rescued them on trolleys and brought as many patients as we could out of the ICU and shifted them to another location. Six of those patients were very critical; we tried very hard to revive them with CPR, but they couldn’t be saved,” the hospital official added.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph confirmed that forensic teams are probing the incident. “At first glance, it appears to have been triggered by a short circuit. The remaining patients have been shifted and are undergoing treatment,” he said.
Families alleged that only one staff member was present in each ICU during the night and that they fled as soon as the fire broke out. Many patients were carried outside on their beds by attendants and relatives, as firefighters battled the blaze for nearly two hours. Relatives also accused the hospital of poor safety arrangements. “The ICU caught fire, but there was no equipment to extinguish it, no extinguishers, no cylinders, not even water. My mother didn’t survive,” one family member told PTI. Another alleged, “We alerted the staff about the smoke, but they ignored us. When the fire broke out, they were the first to run.”
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma cancelled a scheduled Delhi visit and ordered a high-level probe. A committee led by Medical Education Commissioner Iqbal Khan will examine the cause of the fire, the hospital’s response, evacuation measures, and ways to prevent such incidents in future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, The loss of lives due to a fire tragedy at a hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan, is deeply saddening. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the tragedy “extremely heartbreaking” and urged the Rajasthan government to provide adequate compensation and take strict action to prevent recurrence.
