Overview

• Late Sunday night, a blaze erupted around 11:20 pm in the Neuro ICU at Jaipur’s state-run SMS Hospital trauma centre, rapidly filling the ward with smoke and complicating evacuation.
• Hospital authorities reported six fatalities, though some outlets initially cited eight, and several patients remained injured or critical.
• Firefighters broke windows to enter the smoke-choked ward and took roughly one to one-and-a-half hours to control the flames, officials said.
• The Rajasthan government set up a six-member panel led by Medical Education Commissioner Iqbal Khan, with police forensic and fire-department probes underway.
• The state removed the SMS Hospital superintendent and the trauma centre in-charge, cancelled the fire-safety contractor’s tender, and announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for each victim’s family.