A Gandhi Hospital fire broke out in an office room at the government hospital in Secunderabad on Tuesday evening, briefly causing panic and leaving a security supervisor with breathing difficulties, while hospital authorities said no records, files or furniture were damaged.
The fire was reported at about 6.30 pm in the superintendent’s room within the accounts department on the ground floor of the hospital’s main building. Thick smoke spread through the area before staff members brought the incident under control using fire extinguishers available on site.
The security supervisor, identified as Sudheer, suffered from asphyxiation during the incident. Fellow staff members took him to the hospital’s emergency ward for treatment, according to the report. The supplied information does not specify the severity of his condition or whether he was later discharged.
Fire department personnel arrived after being informed and inspected the surrounding areas to confirm that they were safe. Hospital superintendent Dr Usharani said the incident was minor and had been quickly neutralised by hospital staff.
“Fire department personnel arrived to inspect and confirm the safety of the surrounding areas,” Dr Usharani said. She also rejected reports that the fire had caused significant damage to official property or occurred in the medical records section.
“Contrary to false reports circulating in certain media groups, no office records, files, or furniture were damaged, and the incident did not occur in the medical records section,” she said.
Preliminary assessments indicated that the fire might have been triggered by an overturned oil lamp placed near a deity’s frame in the room. The hospital administration has not described that possibility as a final determination. A thorough investigation is underway to establish the exact cause of the outbreak.
The incident highlights the operational importance of fire response systems inside large public hospitals, where offices, patient-care areas and administrative records function within the same complex. In this case, the hospital said staff intervention and the use of on-site extinguishers helped contain the fire before it caused wider damage. The available account does not provide details of the building’s fire-safety certification, the number of extinguishers deployed or whether any hospital services were disrupted.
The hospital’s statement also sought to distinguish the affected accounts department office from the medical records section, correcting reports that records had been damaged. No disruption to clinical services or patient care has been reported in the supplied material.
Hospital authorities are continuing their investigation into the cause of the fire. Fire department personnel have completed an initial inspection of the surrounding areas, while the administration is expected to establish the precise sequence of events and confirm whether any safety procedures require review.
