Bareilly, August 29, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A fire broke out on the top floor of a five-storey hospital in Bareilly on Saturday morning, triggering panic among patients, attendants and staff before firefighters brought the blaze under control in about 30 minutes. No casualties were reported in the incident.
The fire broke out at Navodaya Hospital around 10 am, during OPD hours when the facility was crowded. Officials said around 100 patients and attendants were present in the ICU and other wards when smoke began spreading through the building.
After the fire alarm sounded, relatives and hospital staff began evacuating patients. Critically ill patients were moved out on stretchers as police and fire brigade teams reached the hospital and launched rescue and firefighting operations.
As a precautionary measure, the hospital administration arranged ambulances and shifted all patients to nearby hospitals following the incident.
Rescue officials said the blaze reportedly started in a room on the top floor. A short circuit in the MCV box is suspected to have triggered the fire, after which smoke spread to different parts of the building. Fire alarms on all floors went off, adding to the panic inside the hospital.
Officials, however, said the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation. The authorities are also examining how the blaze originated on the top floor.
The incident comes days after a fatal fire at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the District Women’s Hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati in the early hours of August 24. Three infants died of suffocation due to heavy smoke, while six others were undergoing treatment at a local Super Speciality Hospital.
The Amravati incident triggered widespread outrage and scrutiny of fire-safety preparedness at medical facilities. The hospital building had been inaugurated a year earlier by the late Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Authorities are investigating reports that the automated fire suppression system failed to activate, as well as whether an exploding ventilator was outdated, inadequately maintained or affected by a technical failure.
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