LAHORE: Three patients, including a woman, fainted because of suffocation when a fire erupted in the emergency department of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Sunday.

The flames and dense smoke in the multistory emergency of the hospital led to stamped-like situation as the doctors, nurses and paramedics fled the scene leaving the patients and their attendants in a lurch.

As the blaze erupted, the hospital's administrative staff also disappeared from the department which remained dysfunctional for some five hours.

The Rescue 1122 personnel who rushed to the scene said the fire first erupted in a room where a chiller plant was installed.

A hospital employee said the janitorial services staff used the room for smoking and the fire might have erupted due to a cigarette butt left burning.

Attendants of patients, with the help of rescue staff, broke some windowpanes to vent smoke on finding all the exit points closed. The emergency department was completely evacuated to facilitate the rescue work.

A Rescue 1122 personnel told the media the fire-fighting equipment at the emergency department was not functioning at the time of the incident.

He said the rescuers managed to control the fire after an hour.

Some senior health department officials and Lahore district coordination officer reached the hospital to supervise the rescue work.

The hospital administration later informed the media that no casualty was reported in the incident. A major part of the chiller plant, however, got damaged in the fire, it said.

Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, talking to the media, said strict action would be taken against the hospital's medical superintendent if such incident occurred again.

The advisor had given a similar warning to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology head two days ago when a fire erupted in the emergency unit of the institute that damaged costly equipment.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2014