Hospital Fire Safety: What Patients’ Families and Staff Can Do

When we admit a parent to an ICU or a newborn to a nursery, we worry about the illness. We almost never think about fire. Yet some of India’s worst fires in recent years have been in hospitals, and the people who died were patients who could not get out of bed.

What we know, and what we don’t

There is no official national count of hospital-fire deaths in India. The NCRB records fire deaths by cause and by type of place, but it does not list hospitals separately. So any single number you see for “hospital fire deaths in India” should be treated with caution.

What we do have are the individual tragedies, and they are grim enough:

• AMRI Hospital, Kolkata (December 2011): smoke from a basement store spread into the wards. News reports counted 88 to 89 dead on the day; later court reporting gives the toll as 92. Most were patients.
• Shrey Hospital, Ahmedabad (August 2020): 8 COVID patients died in an ICU fire.
• Uday Shivanand Hospital, Rajkot (November 2020): 5 COVID patients died in the ICU; a preliminary probe blamed a short circuit in a ventilator.
• Bhandara District Hospital, Maharashtra (January 2021): 10 newborns died in the newborn care unit.
• Welfare Hospital, Bharuch (May 2021): 18 died, 16 COVID patients and two nurses.
• Jhansi Medical College NICU (November 2024): 10 newborns died on the night of the fire; PTI reported 18 deaths by 25 November, with officials blaming the later deaths on illness.

Several of these fires happened during COVID, when ICUs were packed, oxygen use was very high and electrical equipment ran round the clock.

Why hospitals are so dangerous in a fire

• Patients cannot run. People on ventilators, drips or in incubators need staff to move them, and there are rarely enough staff at night.
• Oxygen makes fire fiercer. In an oxygen-rich room, bedding, clothing and plastics catch fire easily and burn much faster.
• Heavy electrical load. Ventilators, monitors, warmers and air conditioners running nonstop on old or overloaded wiring are a common starting point.
• Smoke travels. Stores, basements and false ceilings let smoke reach the wards before anyone sees flames.

Two myths

“Hospitals are the safest buildings in a fire.” Not automatically. A hospital is only as safe as its wiring, its smoke barriers, its alarms and the number of trained staff on duty at 3 AM. In several of the fires above, investigators and officials pointed to electrical faults, poor storage or missing safety measures.

“Hospital fires are rare accidents.” They are not frequent, but when they happen they kill the most helpless people in the building. That is why the standard has to be higher than for an ordinary building, not lower.

What you can do

As a patient’s family

• When you reach the ward, find the nearest exit and the stairs, and check the exit is not locked or blocked.
• Look for smoke detectors and an extinguisher on the floor.
• Do not use extension boards, heaters or mobile chargers near oxygen.
• Never smoke or light a lamp or agarbatti anywhere near a patient on oxygen.
• If you see oxygen cylinders lying loose, wires sparking or exits locked, tell the nursing station, and report it to the fire service if nothing is done.

As hospital staff

• Attend every fire drill and know your role, especially for patients who cannot walk.
• Know where the oxygen shut-off valves are for your area, and who is allowed to close them.
• Learn how to move a patient horizontally to the next safe zone, not just down the stairs.
• Report overloaded sockets, hot plugs and damaged wiring the same day.

If a fire starts in a hospital

• Raise the alarm and tell the nursing station at once.
• Follow staff instructions. Move with your patient to the area staff direct you to, usually through the fire doors on the same floor.
• Close doors behind you to hold back the smoke.
• Stay low and cover your nose and mouth if there is smoke.
• Do not use the lift.
• Call 101 or 112 if you are not sure the alarm has gone out.

Next time you walk into a hospital, look at the exits as well as the doctors. Ask yourself: if a fire started now, could this place get my family out?