Fire at DMCH doused in less than half an hour

A fire that broke out at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital this afternoon was doused in less than half an hour by hospital staffers.

The fire broke out in the kidney department on the third floor of the new building of DMCH around 2:45. Later, hospital staffers extinguished the fire, witnesses said.

Khaleda Yasmin, a duty officer at Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, told The Daily Star that two firefighting units reached the spot at 3:04pm and the fire was doused at 3:12pm.

The fire originated from an air conditioner, said the duty officer.

Akbar Hossain, ward boy of the kidney department, said the fire started from the air-conditioning unit outside the kidney department. Later they put out the fire using fire extinguishers. 

There were 30 patients in the kidney department that time and they were unharmed.

Ward Master Md Riaz said there were 30 patients in the kidney department and they were unharmed.

Currently the situation is normal, he said.

Inspector Bachchu Miah, in-charge of the DMCH police outpost, said apart from the AC unit that caught fire, the unit next to it was also damaged.