Fire breaks out at hospital in J-K's Rajouri, 150 patients evacuated

A fire broke out at the Government Medical College (GMC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Tuesday, prompting the evacuation of more than 150 patients from the hospital, officials said.

The fire was noticed in the basement of the hospital in Rajouri town on Tuesday morning. It was controlled within one hour without reports of any casualty, assistant director of Fire and Emergency Services, Himanshu Gupta, said.

The patients and their attendants were taken out of the hospital building as smoke filled the wards, he said.

Three fire tenders were pressed into service to put off the blaze, the official said, adding that a probe is on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire  Deputy commissioner of Rajouri, Abhishek Sharma, visited the hospital along with his team to assess the situation.

"Our priority is to restore normal operations, including OPD services, at the hospital," Sharma said.

On the alleged failure of the hospital's internal fire safety mechanism, the deputy commissioner said the matter will be inquired.

The hospital staff and several volunteers acted swiftly and tried to douse the flames before the firemen took over and restricted the fire to the basement area, officials said.