19-05-2025
Hyderabad fire: Telangana govt rejects claims that ambulances lacked oxygen support
Telangana's health department on Monday dismissed as rumours allegations that ambulances used in the rescue operations after the fire at Gulzar House near Charminar lacked oxygen support.
After 17 people of a family, eight of them children, were killed in Sunday's massive fire in Hyderabad, Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K T Rama Rao told the media about the alleged shortage of oxygen in ambulances used to ferry victims to hospitals.
While alleging gross negligence and under-preparedness on the part of the state government, the Opposition politician said he was only voicing the concerns of the aggrieved family, which he visited after the tragedy.
However, Dr B Ravinder Nayak, Director of Public Health & Family Welfare, stated that every ambulance was equipped with oxygen support. He said the first patient was shifted from the incident site to Osmania Hospital at 6.25 am in ambulance number TS08UL5682 on Sunday. 'In total, 8 ambulances were dispatched to the scene,' he said in a statement.
Altogether, 15 patients were transported via '108' ambulances to the Osmania, CARE, Apollo, and Yashoda hospitals, Dr Naik said, while urging everyone not to spread rumours, adding that such misinformation could demoralise health department staff and emergency responders.
Dr Naik said the department was immediately alerted about the incident and a team of doctors was promptly sent to the location. 'A team of specialist doctors was also kept on standby at Osmania Hospital to provide treatment to the injured. Regrettably, all victims lost their lives in the tragic fire. However, efforts were made to complete postmortem procedures swiftly to minimise distress to the families of the deceased,' he said.
Emphasising that the incident should serve as a wake-up call for improving basic emergency infrastructure, KTR called on the state to immediately provide Rs 25 lakh compensation to the kin of the deceased and extend support to the Agarwal family in restarting their business, which had served the city for over a century.
