250 people evacuated after IGMCH Shimla’s OPD block catches fire

A fire broke out at the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH) here on Thursday after two cooking gas cylinders exploded in the cafeteria, leading to the evacuation of about 250 people from the new OPD building, officials said.
No casualty has been reported, they said
“We received a call at 8:50 am and six fire tenders from The Mall Road, Chotta Shimla and Boileauganj, were rushed to the spot and the fire was stopped from spreading,” a fire official said.
The column of smoke from the building was visible from far away.
The two blasts took place in quick succession, triggering panic, those present during the incident said.
The blasts occurred when Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) services had just started. Within 15-20 minutes, about 250 people, including patients, were evacuated with the help of hospital staff and others, IGMCH Senior Medical Superintendent Rahul Rao said.
OPD services have been shifted to the old building for now, he added.
No casualty has been reported, Rao said and added that four chambers of doctors, the cafeteria and three lifts have been damaged in the fire and according to a preliminary estimate, the loss is over Rs 60 lakhs.
Fire extinguishers and other equipment were available in the newly constructed building and these were used to stop the fire from spreading, till the fire tenders arrived, health officials said.
The new multi-storey OPD block, constructed at a cost of Rs 30.90 crore, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on March 9 last.
The building houses emergency unit, intensive care unit, special wards, isolation ward and physiotherapy ward, as well as computerised tomography scan, X-ray, sample collection and pathology lab facilities.