At least nine hospitals treating novel Covid-19 patients in Agra have inadequate fire safety measures, authorities have found.

With the growing number of Covid-19 patients in Agra, the local administration is busy preparing new hospitals to serve as COVID care centers. There are over a dozen hospitals to treat novel coronavirus patients in Agra — incapable to fight a fire if it breaks out.

When Indiatoday.in surveyed these hospitals, it was found that nine of the hospitals, that were selected by the administration as COVID centers, were not equipped with any fire-fighting measures.

Few hospitals including two government hospitals — the Sarojini Naidu Medical College and the District Hospital — had expired hand-help fire extinguishers.

Earlier, UP Additional Chief Secretary Avnish Awasthi had asked for reports about the state of fire-fighting preparedness at all coronavirus hospitals in the state following the two incidents of fire at COVID hospitals in Ahmedabad and Vijaywada.

Chief Fire Officer Ranjan Sharma said that the survey was conducted as per the government orders and it was found that these hospitals were being “highly careless with fire safety norms”.

At Nayati Hospital, the fire safety arrangements at the isolation ward were not found as per norms.

When Indiatoday.in raised this issue before the Additional District Magistrate (Agra City) Dr. Prabhakant Awasthi, he said that the hospitals which have been found lacking in fire safety arrangements are being served notices.

Reacting to this, Hindustani Biradari Vice-Chairman Vishal Sharma expressed deep concern about the safety of Covid-19 patients admitted in these hospitals and demanded that a fire-safety survey be conducted of all hospitals and nursing homes of Agra.

“There are several small nursing homes in Agra, especially in the Trans-Yamuna and Arjun Nagar areas where fire safety norms are being openly flouted by nursing homes opened in residential buildings. Due to this, not just patients but lives of those staying near these nursing homes is also at stake,” he said.

Sharma said that none of these hospitals had the prescribed underground water tank capable of storing 1 lakh liters of water. Nayati Hospital had a tank that could store 40,000 liters of water, but some didn’t have even that much capacity. Nayati was constructed in such a way that the rear side of the building had no access for fire tenders.

“The nearby Prabha Hospital also didn’t have the required fire fighting arrangments. Even at the SN Medical college, fire fighting equipment was not seen in the Eye Department. There was not even a fire alarm. In the COVID wing of the hospital, there is equipment to fight a fire if it breaks out, but no trained staff to operate them,” Sharma said.

He added that if a fire breaks out in any of these COVID hospitals or any such nursing home of Agra where fire safety norms are not being followed, the city’s fire department will not be able to provide relief in time.