Where did the Suhrawardy Hospital fire begin?

The authorities of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital and Fire Service have issued differing statements on where Thursday’s fire in the hospital started.

At least 1,200 patients including 10 from the Intensive Care Unit were evacuated after the fire broke out in the hospital at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Thursday evening. 

It took firemen three hours to douse the flames but the hospital is yet to be fully operational.

Families of patients have complained of insufficient fire fighting systems at the hospital and their claims were affirmed by Fire Service officials. 

According to Uttam Barua, the director of the four-storey hospital, the fire initially broke out in the children’s ward in the hospital’s third floor before engulfing the other floors.

But Brig Gen Ali Ahmed Khan, director general of Fire Service and Civil Defence, dismissed the hospital’s claims.

He said that the blaze began in a store room on the hospital’s ground floor before spreading throughout hospital as flames always move upwards.

“Some of the rooms are still beset with small fires and smoke. But it isn’t spreading. We are now checking all rooms,” the director general said around 8:00 pm Thursday.

The flames were fully contained half an hour later.

An electrical short circuit set off the flames, according to Fire Service officials.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)  formed a seven-membered panel headed by an additional secretary to look into the incident, said Abul Kalam Azad, the director general of DGHS.