A fire breaking out at Tangail General Hospital on Thursday disrupted the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital.
The fire was sparked from a high flow nasal cannula. The fire service managed to bring the fire under control rapidly. There were no casualties in the accident. The ICU patients have been relocated to the general wards.
The hospital resident medical officer (RMO) Shafiqul Islam said at around 3:35pm, a high flow nasal cannula in the ICU suddenly burst into flames. The hospital staff used the firefighting equipment to immediately try to douse the flames with carbon dioxide.
Panic broke out among the patients under treatment in the 10-bed ICU. Their relatives and hospital staff quickly took them out of the ICU. The fire service arrived very soon and brought the flames under control.
Assistant director of the Tangail Fire Service and Civil Defence, Rezaul Karim, said they rushed to the hospital as soon as they received the news. They managed to extinguish the fire in a matter of minutes. He ascertained that a high flow nasal cannula was the source of the fire.
Other than the ICU patients, the patients from the general wards were also brought outside of the hospital by their relatives. Panic spread throughout the hospital. Patients were administered oxygen and other emergency treatment in various places of the hospital premises.
District civil surgeon Abul Fazal Mohammed Shahabuddin said the patients had been relocated and were being provided necessary treatment. The ICU, however, remained closed. It would be prepared for use again as soon as possible.
Tangail deputy commissioner Md Ataul Ghani said no lives were lost in this incident. There had been 10 patients in the ICU. They were quickly moved to a safety.
A five-member inquiry committee headed by the additional district magistrate has been formed to look into the cause of the fire.