Abstract

Healthcare institutions are vulnerable to disruption from events such as earthquakes, fires, and floods, and the damage incurred can endanger the lives of patients in the hospital.[1] In this type of scenario hospital staff have primary responsibility for the hospitalized patients' safety, since patients are neither fit to respond to such a disaster, nor do they know how to respond.[2,3] The situation becomes more difficult and challenging if the disaster occurs in critical care areas such as intensive care units (ICUs) and operating rooms, due to the complexities involved in moving acutely ill patients who are reliant on organ support and invasive monitoring. Here we report on one such incident involving a fire that occurred in a 10-bed ICU in our 2000-bed public sector tertiary care teaching hospital in Northern India. The hospital has a robust fire prevention and fire fighting system that includes a fire control room and fire officers who are responsible for ensuring strict compliance with statutory and regulatory aspects of fire safety round-theclock, seven-days-a-week. Various reports from around the globe describe fire incidents in ICU settings that include evacuations,[3] promoting fire safety,[4] managing fires,[5,6] and preparedness and crisis management strategies.[7] This case report adds to this body of research, and describes a fire incident and summarize the lessons learned in the ICU of a hospital.

Authors and Affiliations