Primary reason of fire was short circuit: Inquiry team on Jhansi Medical College fire incident
Amid the ongoing investigation in the Jhansi Medical College fire incident, which had claimed 12 lives, Director General of Medical Education and training Kinjal Singh, who is leading the four-member inquiry team, said the primary reason behind the incident was short circuit. The team recreated the scene of the incident on Tuesday.
Kinjal Singh said, "We are going into more detail to probe what happened in the three rooms where fire broke out, including ICU and step-down, the location of exit doors. We are probing the extension boards, which were installed, belonged to which company and from where were they purchased." Reacting to reports of copper wiring and aluminium wiring being used despite being prohibited, she said the principal would submit a report on it.
"We have taken the audit report of electricity from here for the last four years. We have asked the college what action was taken on this report, so the principal will prepare a report on it too. There is a two-page audit report. We are asking the college about the actions taken on it. We tried to recreate the scene today. If there is any negligence from the college we will submit it in the report," she added.
The death toll in the fire at the NICU ward of Maharani Lakshmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi has climbed to 12.
The Uttar Pradesh Government on Saturday formed a high-level committee to probe the fire.
The tragedy occurred when a fire, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit in an oxygen concentrator, spread rapidly in the highly oxygenated environment of the NICU, leading to the deaths.
A four-member committee comprising members of the UP Health Department has been asked to submit its report in seven days.
“An investigation committee of the Health Department has been formed in connection with the fire incident at Jhansi Medical College. The investigation committee will give a detailed investigation report of the case in the next seven days,” the state government stated on Saturday.
