A night turned into a disaster for the patients at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Hospital after a fire broke out in the trauma centre of the government-run hospital on Sunday.
The massive fire, suspected to have been caused by a short circuit, started in the intensive care unit (ICU), killing six of the 11 patients that were being treated there. It then quickly spread to a nearby ward, triggering panic among other patients and their families.
Some families of the patients alleged that they had warned the hospital staff about the smoke, but were told that "it was normal". They also said the fire alarm didn't go off and that there were no fire extinguishers.
They said they had to rescue the patients as the hospital staff members fled during the fire.
They then carried the patients on stretchers outside the hospital and waited on the road for about an hour before ambulances arrived.
"There was chaos when the fire broke out. We then quickly rescued our patient," a relative said.
A ward boy who was at the scene said that he and other staff members rescued as many people as they could before the fire worsened.
"We were inside the operating theatre when we heard about the fire, so we immediately rushed to rescue the people inside the centre. We managed to save at least three to four patients. However, as the flames intensified, we could no longer go into the building. We did our best to rescue as many as we could," he said.
He said the police arrived later, but they could not enter the building immediately due to the heavy smoke.
#WATCH | Jaipur, Rajasthan | A massive fire broke out in an ICU ward of Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital, claiming the lives of six patients pic.twitter.com/CBM6vcTMfZ
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2025
The victims have been identified as Pintu from Sikar, Dilip and Bahadur from Jaipur, Shrinath, Rukmini, and Khurma -- all from Bharatpur.
Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, who visited the trauma centre to take stock of the situation this morning, has formed a high-level committee to probe the incident.
The committee will be headed by the commissioner of the Medical Education Department, Iqbal Khan.
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