LAHORE, Nov 13: Two patients died of suffocation while two others were injured and many affected when the four-storey Wapda Hospital on Ferozepur Road in Rehmanpura caught fire on Wednesday night.

Eyewitnesses and the hospital administration told reporters that the fire broke out at around 7:30pm. They said panic gripped the hospital and the adjacent locality, as people started running helter-skelter.

“The fire spread swiftly and engulfed the hospital in no time,” Umair Awan, a passerby, said.

“Only fire balls were visible when thick smoke blanketed the building and made everything around invisible,” he said, adding that police and fire tenders were immediately called to the place.

The fire-brigade, police, a bomb disposal squad, Wapda and civil defence officials came to the spot. The fire tenders took more than three hours to put out the flames.

Residents, the police and civic agencies launched a rescue operation. Around 145 patients were said to be in the hospital when the fire broke out. Some of them managed to come out on their own while others had to be rescued.

Two bodies were recovered from the rubble on the third floor housing a surgical ward, which had caught fire. One of them was identified as Saleem Akhtar (45), a Wapda employee, and the other as Karima Bibi (40), wife of a Wapda employee. Some 42 patients were in the ward at the time of the incident.

Many men were found unconscious. They were immediately taken to the Services Hospital where their condition was stated to be critical till late night. Their identity could not be ascertained immediately. Those with minor injuries were given first-aid on the spot.

The hospital administration shifted all patients to different hospitals. Efforts to restore electricity and other facilities were being made at the hospital till the filing of this report.

Wapda Chairman Zulfikar Ali visited the place in the company of District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood. They supervized the rescue operation and were said to have been there till late night.

Briefing reporters, the chairman said an AC plant on the third floor of the hospital had caught fire following a shot-circuit.

He, however, added that he had appointed Brig Saeedul Haq Malik as the inquiry officer to further probe the matter. He also announced Rs200,000 compensation each for families of the two people killed in the fire. He said Wapda would give jobs to one member of each of the two families.

Yasin and Javed, relatives of the patients rescued, told reporters that the hospital had no arrangements for an emergency. “There were no fire extinguishers or emergency exits,” they claimed.