Fire safety adds to Covid-19 worries

Last Monday, there was a fire on the ground floor of coronavirus unit at Barishal's Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital. While there were thankfully no casualties, the incident exposed the hospital's unpreparedness in the case of fires.

On a visit to the hospital, this correspondent found multiple exposed wires at different wards in the old building. The hospital has undergone little to no renovation in recent years, and a meagre number of fire safety equipment was available.

"The wires are worn down. Those have not been changed in a while and the building needs renovation. Otherwise thousands of patients, attendants, doctors and staff are being put at risk every day," said Dr Sudip Halder of SBMCH Indoor Doctors' Association.

The hospital's coronavirus unit was established at a new, five-storied building which was inaugurated this year. On Monday, the fire broke out from a short-circuit and was brought under control within thirty minutes, said the unit's in-charge Dr Maniruzzaman Shahin.

Md Ripon, an attendant to a patient admitted at the unit, said, "It was very sudden and we saw smoke spreading. It was very scary and my relative (the patient) started crying out of fear."

In June 2015, four people were injured after a fire broke out at the main building of SBMCH, said hospital sources.

Oliver Guda, executive director of Barishal's public works department told the Daily Star that the coronavirus unit was inaugurated recently despite there not being enough fire safety equipment. "This building needs a 240 kV generator but it only has a 60kV one which was borrowed from the nurses' unit on an emergency basis."

"Patients have to use heaters and air conditioners. The generator cannot support this and hence a fire broke out from a short-circuit," said Oliver.

"The contractor will not be able to set up complete fire safety measures till August," he added.

Assistant Director of Fire Service and Civil Defense at Barishal, Faruque Hossain Sikder, said, "There are no fire safety measures at the old building or the coronavirus unit, save for a few fire extinguishers. We have visited these buildings and sent a letter to the authority to set up proper safety measures last year, but there has been no progress. They haven't received fire safety training either."

Faruque said they suggested the SBMCH administration to set up reservoir, high den, hose pipes and safe electric wires but these suggestions were not implemented.

"The coronavirus unit was opened in a hurry in March. There is a reservoir but hose pipe and other equipment are missing," he added.

The building where the Covid-19 patients are being treated, still has some finishing touches left to go. Lift hasn't been set up there yet.

Meanwhile, SBMCH Director Bakir Hossain said they have sent a letter to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for setting up complete fire safety measures and replacing the decades-old wiring at the old building. "But we did not receive any allocation," said Bakir.

"We opened the coronavirus unit earlier than planned because of the crisis. The unit only has a few extinguishers but there are sparks often as people are using heater," he said, "We have written to DGHS several times. We wrote to them just a couple of days ago but we haven't received any word. Now we have decided to stop the use of heaters."

On May 27, five patients died in a fire at the Covid-19 unit of United Hospital in Dhaka. Fire service later assessed that the unit was lacking in safety measures and violated the Bangladesh National Building Code.