Odisha SUM hospital fire: Death toll rises to 24 as one more person succumbs to injuries

Bhubaneswar: The death toll in Odisha’s SUM Hospital fire rose to 24, as one more person undergoing treatment succumbed to injuries on Friday, a health official said.

“While two other patients succumbed to their injuries in the Capital Hospital on Thursday night, one more died on Friday,” the official said.

Sheikh Qurban of Khurda undergoing treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital here succumbed four days after receiving extensive injuries in Monday’s blaze that initially claimed 19 lives.

On Thursday night, Biswanath Behera of Dumduma area in Bhubaneswar and Rashmita Swain of Balipada area in Puri also died. Two more injured persons had succumbed to injuries earlier during the week.

As many as 106 patients were shifted to different hospitals following the major fire that broke out in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the dialysis ward at SUM hospital on Monday evening.

The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Commissionerate Police arrested four hospital officials on Tuesday, and the owner, Manoj Nayak, on Thursday and secured his two-day remand.

Nayak was to be grilled over the renewal of registration and the lack of fire safety measures in his hospital, the police said.