Cuttack, Oct. 16: Patients at the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre had to be rushed out after a fire broke out inside the new annex building of the premier hospital here on Friday evening.

An 11-year-old boy, who was on oxygen support, died shortly after he was shifted to another ward.

Over 80 patients and staff members were evacuated from the new building and taken to the old facility. The blaze brought back memories of the Amri hospital fire that killed around 90 patients in Calcutta in 2011.

However, hospital officials claimed that a major tragedy was averted by the timely intervention of the staff, including doctors, nurses and other local residents, who helped to evacuate the patients.

Eyewitness said the storeroom had initially caught fire due to a short circuit in one of the air conditioners. Subsequently, the fire engulfed one cabin of the post-operative ward on the fourth floor of the building.

"We had shifted the boy, who was on oxygen support, on the advice of the hospital authorities. However, he died within 15 minutes after the shifting," said Kartik Behera, a relative of the deceased Samuel Behera.

Not willing to be named, a senior doctor at the cancer hospital said Behera was in a critical condition and the death was not caused due to negligence. He, however, said that the allegations would be thoroughly examined. An inquiry has already been ordered to ascertain the reason of the fire, he said.

Kartik alleged that there was utter chaos inside the building after a few patients noticed smoke coming out of the storeroom.

"We had immediately shifted all the patients to the general ward and the power supply was also immediately snapped following the mishap," said Pratap Mishra, the hospital administrative officer.

Mishra said due to the timely intervention of the medical staff, there was no problem in evacuating the patients.

Two cabins, ceiling on the verandah and few property were gutted in the fire.

"We will conduct a detailed inspection of the electric wiring of the hospital," Mishra said.

The new annex building was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on April 25, 2011, and was built at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore.

A post-operative ward, a day care centre, a paediatric unit and an operation theatre was functioning from the new annex building of the hospital.

"We were initially scared after we came to know about the fire at the storeroom located close to our ward. It was surprising that there were no adequate fire extinguishers that could have been used to control the fire," said Netramani Pradhan, another patient.

Patients alleged as there was only a single staircase, it also caused problems in evacuating critically-ill patients on stretchers.

"It appears that the fire was caused mainly due to the short circuit and after getting information about the incident four fire tenders were used to douse the flames," said C.M. Routray, city fire officer.