HYDERABAD/VISAKHAPATNAM: If there's a fire in the hospital, what do you do and who do you call? Express asked this question to hospital staffers and the responses were indicative of the awareness of fire safety in the state's hospitals.Ranging from bewilderment to indifference, they belied the claim of some hospital security departments that they carry out fire safety drills on a weekly or fortnightly basis. For instance, nurses at Yashoda Hospital in Somajiguda gave a blank stare when asked if they knew how to handle fire extinguishers. And the chief security officer here was only slightly more wiser. "All we have to do is call 101 in case of an emergency," he said when asked if he knew where the nearest fire service station is.At the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad, the help desk didn't know whom to call in case of a fire. One orderly, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "There is no department I am aware of within the premises that takes care of fire accidents." Not surprising, since the turnout at mock fire drills at Hyderabad's hospitals is about 3050.In Visakhapatnam, when Express asked hospital staffers what they would do if a fire broke out on the premises, the response was honest. They'd run.This response was amply evident when a fire broke out in Annapurna Hospital at Dwarakanagar in August this year. The nursing and management staff fled the building, leaving the patients to their own devices.Unlike in the Kolkata AMRI fire, this didn't have any grim consequences, because fire personnel rescued patients from the smoke that had spread to all the floors of the building.In most hospitals, the question what one would do in case of a fire is a futile one because there is hardly any equipment to fight the blaze with. And where there is some minimal firefighting equipment, staffers are not trained to use them or taught disaster response behaviour.In Vizag, after repeated warnings from the fire service, a few private hospitals installed fire extinguishers and Down Commer System (DCS) wherein water tanks are built on the top floor, which helps tackle fire in the lower floors.However, staff at most of these hospitals said they don't know how to operate fire extinguishers or handle hose pipes and highpressure hydraulic pipes. Many of them did not know the names of the equipment.Fire service officials said it is mandatory for nursing staff, security guards and even sanitation staff of hospitals to attend training classes in handling fire exigencies for at least 20 days a year."We have been urging hospital managements to use our help to train their staff in fire control and rescue operations, but they don't respond," said Vizag district fire officer S V Narasimham. "What's the use of equipment if the staff don't know how to operate it?"
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