Ten critically ill patients died and sixteen others sustained severe injuries early Monday after a fire tore through the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Shri Ram Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College and Hospital, a major government-run facility in Cuttack, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.
The fire broke out between 2:30 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. inside the Trauma Care ICU on the first floor of the hospital’s casualty department building, where 23 critically ill patients were undergoing treatment. Seven patients died during evacuation as thick smoke engulfed the ward, while three others succumbed to burns and suffocation in the hours that followed.
Preliminary reports indicate that a suspected electrical short circuit originating from two ventilators inside the ICU may have triggered the blaze. Firefighters brought the fire under control within approximately 30 minutes of arriving at the scene, while hospital staff, police, and patients’ relatives assisted in moving survivors to other wards within the building.
The deceased have been identified as patients from across multiple districts of Odisha, ranging in age from 30 to 100 years old. Eleven hospital staff sustained burn injuries during the rescue operation. Five patients also sustained severe injuries and are receiving continued treatment at the facility.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who rushed to the hospital shortly after the incident, announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 25 lakh for the family of each person killed. He also ordered a judicial commission of inquiry, to be headed by retired district judge Laxmidhar Biswal, to investigate the cause of the fire and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents in future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the incident as “deeply painful” in a post on social media and announced a payment of Rs 2 lakh per deceased from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), as well as Rs 50,000 for each injured person.
SCB Medical College and Hospital is the largest government-run hospital in Odisha, receiving more than 5,000 patients from across the state every day, making this one of the most serious hospital fire incidents in the state in recent years. Opposition legislators demanded an independent high-level inquiry, with several raising concerns about whether mandatory six-monthly fire safety checks had been conducted at the facility.
