13 patients die as fire breaks out at Hospital in Maharashtra

At least 13 coronavirus patients who were in the ICU have died in a fire at a hospital in Maharashtra's Virar.

"Around 90 patients were admitted to the hospital at the time of the incident," Dilip Shah, CEO, Vijay Vallabh Hospital, told reporters this morning.

There were 17 patients in the ICU when the fire broke out, the official said. Four patients were rescued and shifted to other hospitals in the area, he added.

Virar is over 50 km from Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Vivekanand Kadam, who leads the District Disaster Control Cell, told news agency PTI the fire started after an explosion in the AC unit of the intensive care unit. The hospital was treating 16 patients at the time, he said.

"I got a call at around 3 am from a friend whose mother-in-law was admitted to the hospital. As I reached, I saw fire engines outside the hospital. The intensive care unit at the second floor was engulfed in smoke. Only two nurses were there, couldn't see a doctor. It took firefighters about half an hour to put out the flames. We could see eight-ten bodies there," Avinash Patil, an eyewitness told reporters, according to NDTV.com.

The tragedy comes two days after 22 COVID-19 patients who were either on ventilator or oxygen support, suffocated to death when their oxygen supply stopped suddenly due to a malfunction in the main storage at a civic hospital in Nashik.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe into the fire, the CM's office said.

Maharashtra is continuing to see an alarming upsurge in Covid-19 cases. The state reported 67,013 new infections on Thursday, taking its case tally to 40,94,840.

As many as 568 patients succumbed to the infection, taking the toll to 62,479, said a health department official.