A fire in a private hospital in Tamil Nadu has claimed at least seven lives, including that of a three-year-old boy, late Thursday night. While an investigation is underway, officials suspect that the blaze at the City Hospital was caused by a short circuit.&nbsp;
At least 40 ambulances&mdash;10 operated by the government and 30 private ones&mdash;were pressed into service to aid an estimated 100 people who were rescued from the fire. Firefighters said that six of the deceased&mdash;three men, two women and a child&mdash;had been trapped in the lift of the four-storey building.
&ldquo;Six persons were found unconscious inside the lift. They were rushed to another hospital, where doctors declared them brought dead,&rdquo; an official told the local media, adding that the deceased had suffocated to death inside the lift even as the fire department carried out a search and rescue. 
The total number of casualties is yet to be ascertained.
Tamil Nadu&rsquo;s Minister for Rural Development I. Periyasamy, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies R. Sakkarapani,&nbsp;former Minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, Dindigul Collector M.N. Poongodi, Dindigul Superintendent of Police A. Pradeep and Palani MLA I.P. Senthil Kumar visited the scene, local media reported.
Collector Poongodi told the press that the fire broke out around 9.45 pm, and that at least 32 people have been admitted to the nearby government hospital, with at least three people requiring ventilators. A few others have also been admitted to other private hospitals, she said, adding that a medical team was also on its way to Dindigul from Madurai for assistance.
For those of us in Ahmedabad, the incident is an eerie echo of August 2020, when a similar electric fire at Shrey Hospital left eight COVID-19 patients dead. It is as yet unclear if City Hospital, like Shrey, was in violation of fire-safety protocols.

Tamil Nadu government official visited the survivors after the fire dept finished its operation

Dindigul blaze suspected to have been caused by short circuit—eerie echo of Shrey Hospital fire

TN Hospital Fire Leaves 7 Dead

Dindigul blaze suspected to have been caused by short circuit—eerie echo of Shrey Hospital fire

December 13, 2024 | 10:38 IST