Cuttack (Odisha), March 16 In the quiet hours of the early morning, when exhausted hospital staff were sleeping on the floors and benches after a long night of care, a fire broke out in the trauma care ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital, and tragically, it turned into a scene of loss and despair.
By sunrise, at least 10 patients had died, as families wandered through the wards in disbelief, and the main government hospital had become a place of shock, smoke, and grief.
The fire started around 2:30 am on the first floor of the trauma care unit, where 23 patients were receiving treatment. Officials said all the deceased were patients. Eleven hospital staff members suffered burns while trying to rescue those trapped inside.
Two consecutive power outages before 2:30 am seemed to be the only warning of the impending danger.
Patients on ventilators were suddenly exposed to thick smoke as chaos reigned in the ICU, and staff struggled to rescue those trapped.
The trauma care center, where critically ill patients are treated, quickly turned into a scene of panic and subsequent deaths as the first floor of the five-story building was engulfed in flames.
The relatives of the patients were asleep in the hospital corridors, as it was late at night, and no one was allowed into the ICU, when news of the fire spread, causing panic among the families who rushed to find their loved ones.
They woke up to cries, running footsteps, and confusion in the corridors. Many rushed towards the ICU. However, security personnel restricted their entry into the ICU as the blaze spread inside the closed, air-conditioned unit.
Many hoped that their relatives had been rescued in time. Instead, they found their loved ones lying dead with burns.
The devastating fire at the hospital was one of the worst tragedies in the city in recent times. While 10 patients died, the remaining were transferred to other wards.
According to an eyewitness, the fire started after two consecutive power outages, and soon the entire ICU was filled with thick smoke.
"Relatives and hospital staff worked together to rescue the patients," the eyewitness said.
Another man said he broke the window glass and poured water in an attempt to extinguish the fire before help arrived.
"Under the guidance of a nurse, I switched off some electrical equipment and rescued seven patients from the ICU, who were in a very serious condition," he said.
The family members of the patients accused the hospital authorities of a delay in calling the fire services, and also alleged that the fire brigade was slow to respond.
They claimed that the automatic fire detection and suppression system also did not function at the time of the incident.
Fire Services Director General Sudhanshu Sarangi, however, said the fire brigade received information about the blaze at 2:58 am, and personnel reached the spot within two minutes.
They used the hydrant available in the building to extinguish the fire, he said.
For the families outside the ICU, the tragedy unfolded not through official updates, but through desperate searching, unanswered questions, and the unbearable discovery of their loved ones' deaths.
"My brother was on ventilator support but he was recovering. Doctors had told me that he would be brought out of ventilation in one or two days. But, when I was searching for him after the fire, I found his body lying on a stretcher in the medicine department," said Ramesh Chandra Parida's younger brother, who died in the incident.
The shock was perhaps deepest for those who had gone to sleep holding on to the reassurances from doctors of recovery of their kin. Krushna Ballav Das of Balasore had admitted his 27-year-old son to the trauma care unit after a road accident on Sunday.
"He was doing well... He was recovering. When I woke up and heard about the fire, I rushed to the hospital, where a staff member told me that my son had died," Das said, weeping.
A mother of four children, who lost her husband to the fire, said she was sleeping in the corridor when suddenly she woke up to the commotion of people rushing towards the ICU.
"When I searched for my husband and asked a staffer, he told me to visit another ward. There, I found my husband dead," she said.
In another harrowing account, the son of a patient from West Bengal said his father had been undergoing treatment at the trauma centre for the past four days after suffering a stroke.
"I was sleeping in front of the ICU when the staffers asked me to go downstairs for safety," he said. "Later, I found my father dead. His body was charred beyond recognition."
Another man, who thanked the almighty as he managed to rescue his brother, said, "When the fire erupted, I, with the help of another person, carried my brother on my shoulder."
The fire is suspected to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, one of the most common causes of hospital fires in India.
Hospitals are especially vulnerable because of their dependence on electrical equipment, oxygen systems, and the presence of critically ill patients who often cannot be moved quickly during emergencies.