Staff Reporter :
The five patients, who died in a fire at United Hospital last night, were kept at a makeshift isolation centre which was “very risky”, a top official of Fire Service and Civil Defence has claimed.
“The isolation unit has been built on temporary basis and the patients were kept there in a risky condition,” said Debashis Bardhan, deputy director (Dhaka division) of Fire Service and Civil Defence.
“It was very risky. The patients died under a sunshade at the centre,” he said.
When the fire broke out, the victims could not get out, he added.
The official came up with the observations while
visiting the hospital on Thursday.
He is leading a committee formed by the fire service to investigate the tragic incident.
There was an extension built with a tin shed and its partitions was built with some partex-like material which is flammable, he added.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam also visited the spot and told reporters that eight out of 11 fire extinguishers at the hospital were date-expired.
The fire broke out around 9:30pm yesterday at the corona isolation ward, which was temporarily built at the hospital’s compound.
Five patients — Riyajul Alam, 45; Khodeja Begum, 70; Varun Anthony Paul, 74; Md Monir Hossain, 75 and Md Mahabub, 50 — who were admitted there, died in the fire, hospital authorities said in a statement.
The hospital authorities said the fire might have originated from a short circuit and quickly spread as it was windy.
