5 days on, no breakthrough in GMC&H-J Drug Store fire

Items worth Rs 4 Cr gutted; CB, FSL teams visit site

S.SHEKHAR

JAMMU: Five days have passed since the mysterious fire incident at Drug Store of premiere Government Medical College & Hospital, Jammu took place on last Sunday evening but there is no breakthrough in ascertaining the cause of this devastating blaze yet, in which medical stocks worth nearly 4 Crore rupees were destroyed.

According to reliable sources, Crime Branch Jammu and State Forensic Lab officials have taken up the investigation of the case and conducted visits to the site of incident on Wednesday.

“The team enquired about the details of the stocks in the Drug Store and also took samples to ascertain the cause of fire,” they said, adding, “The Forensic experts also visited the site again yesterday and further collected the samples of brunt stocks.”

“The Crime Branch officials today also visited the site of fire incident again and further asked for details of the stock from the concerned officials,” the sources informed The News Now.

When contacted for his comment over the issue, Dr. Dara Singh, Medical Superintendent (MS), GMC&H Jammu, informed that although most of the stock including medicines, glucose bottles, injections, disposable syringes, huge bundles of bandages and white cloth meant for patients as well as heavy gadgets including deep fridges worth lakhs have been gutted in the fire incident but some of the items have been saved due to timely action by the staff as well as the officials of Jammu & Kashmir Fire & Emergency Services Department.

“The Drug Store staff is working hard to prepare the inventory afresh as records pertaining to the stocks, which were kept inside the Store, have been fully brunt in the fire,” he said.

When asked about the total loss incurred due to this fire incident, he said, “It’s still difficult to calculate the actual loss as it will take time to come to the conclusion on this account but initially it may come to near about Rs. 4 Crore.”

“Basically, it’s a central store, from where medicines and other items are distributed to sub-stores located at different locations including Primary Health Centers etc and then to the basic consumers.”
“We are anticipating shortage of medicines and other things required in the hospital on daily basis,” he added.

Earlier, short circuiting was stated to be the reason behind this massive fire incident but real cause of fire has to be found out as medical stocks estimating several lakhs of rupees was also gutted in a similar mysterious fire incident in 2016.

It may be recalled here that it took more than 8 hours to completely douse the fire at the Drug Store, which broke out at around 8:40 pm on last Sunday i.e., 17 February, 2019. Fortunately, there was no casualty or injury to any staff of the Drug Store in the massive fire incident.