New Delhi: The majority of those killed in the Delhi fire succumbed not to burn injuries but to asphyxia after inhaling dense smoke generated by the blaze that broke out on the ground floor of the guest house, Flourish Stays, at Hauz Rani in Malviya Nagar.
The guest house primarily hosts foreign nationals undergoing treatment at the nearby Max Hospital.
According to a doctor at Max Hospital, the most critical patients currently on ventilator support are those who jumped from the third floor in a desperate bid to escape the flames. In addition to smoke inhalation-related lung damage, they sustained severe long-bone, pelvic, and spinal injuries from the fall, Dr Sandeep Budhiraja, group medical director, Max Hospital, told reporters in a press conference.
“Very few cases of burn injuries were there. Only one case with 25 percent burns came to us and that was on a ventilator. After the patient became stable, he was referred to Safdurjung,” he said. “In the rest of the cases, there were only minor burns.”
Budhiraja said that in the majority of cases, asphyxia caused by smoke inhalation and exposure to toxic gases led to severe lung injuries and death.
“Thirty-nine patients were brought to us, of whom 18 were declared dead. The major cause of death was asphyxia due to smoke inhalation. Fifteen patients are in the ICU, eight of them are on ventilator support and are undergoing treatment,” he said.
He explained that patients were brought with three types of injuries—burns, though in very few cases, lung injuries caused by smoke inhalation and a combination of lung injuries and fractures sustained while jumping from the second and third floors.
“Apart from lung injuries, several critically ill patients have suffered bone injuries because many of them jumped from upper floors. They have sustained long-bone and pelvic fractures, and one patient has a spinal injury. Some of them remain critical.”
He added that patients who jumped from the third and fourth floors suffered fractures to their arms and legs.
The doctor explained that in most fire-related incidents, people die of asphyxiation because smoke reaches them before the flames do, causing severe damage to the lungs when inhaled.
“When smoke is inhaled, it deprives the body of oxygen and can cause a person to lose consciousness. It also contains toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide, which further damage the lungs. In addition, the hot fumes can cause thermal injuries to the lungs. The combination of oxygen deprivation, toxic gas exposure and thermal injury leads to death, and that is what happened,” he said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)