Country’s major hospital under fire risk

MOST of the fire extinguishers at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) have been beyond their expiry date for more than a year. Worse still, the university has no trained personnel to use those devices in case of a fire. It all poses a serious fire threat to hundreds of patients, doctors, staff and visitors at the country’s lone medical university.
The university has around 2,000 fire extinguishers, most of which were installed in 2012-13, on different floors of its seven highrise buildings. These devices were supposed to be refilled after a year, but nobody has bothered to pay attention to this. Many of the extinguishers have even got damaged and discoloured and lost discharge hose or nozzles.
According to top officials of the university, BSMMU’s engineering section, which is responsible for such matters, did not even notice the expiry of the extinguishers. No one of the authorities concerned wants to shoulder the responsibility. The office of the director and the engineering department traded blame.
Even there was a difference between the statements of the Chief Engineer and its Director as each said that it was the responsibility of the other to maintain the devices. Also the Director claimed that upto 60 staff members had been trained to use the extinguishers but doctors and officials claimed that the university had no such trained staff.
If there is a contradiction between different top administrators of the hospital on such a simple matter as the expiry date of fire extinguishers then it a clear sign that the authorities do not even bother to co-ordinate on most such matters. The matter may be simple, but it is of utmost importance as the hospital over 5000 people inside its compound on any given day and it is not very difficult for a hospital to catch fire due to the presence of pure oxygen canisters in wards and rooms.
The neglect of checking fire extinguishers is a symptom of the malaise that greets parts of our administration. No one accepts any responsibility while all play the blame game and put the onus on someone else. This culture of its not my fault must stop for true progress to take place. In this case it’s the duty of all the administrators to ensure that the hospital works efficiently and that the risks of accidents are minimized. As the saying goes – a stitch in time saves nine. Prompt removal of damaged or obsolete extinguishers along with the proper training to ward boys or other hospital functionaries is essential so that a tiny fire does not become a towering inferno.