Jaipur, Oct. 7 -- At least six patients were confirmed killed due to suffocation caused by smoke inhalation after a massive fire broke out at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the trauma centre in Sawai Man Singh Hospital's trauma centre late on Sunday night, said officials. According to morgue officials, however, two other patients also succumbed due to suffocation during the incident later on Monday morning. However, no official confirmation on their deaths has been issued till going to print. In an official statement, the health department said, "So far, at least six patients have been killed in the incident. The fire broke out due to a short-circuit on Sunday night at an attached store room of the ICU which is located at the second floor of the trauma centre." The six deceased who have confirmed been died due to the accident were Pintu Gurjar (25), Dileep(40), Shrinath Singh (59), Rukmani Kaur (50), Khushma Devi (42) and Bahadur Dhanka (28). Officials said the blaze erupted around 11:20 pm in the neuro ICU ward's store room, where papers, medical equipment, and blood sample tubes were kept. Officials suspect a short circuit as the cause. "There were two ICUs- one comprising 11 patients and another with 13. Our nursing staff and ward boys immediately started evacuating the patients but failed to rescue all when it turned into toxic fumes," said the deputy superintendent of the trauma centre of SMS Hospital, Dr Jagadish Modi. Speaking to reporters on Monday, eyewitnesses and family members of the deceased said that initial sparks were noticed at a store room on the second floor, near the intensive care unit (ICU) as early as 11:20pm and immediately relayed to hospital staff. However, the witnesses alleged that the matter was not taken seriously by hospital staff. "Had they evacuated the patients when we first reported the flames, we wouldn't have to lose our family members," said Sheru Singh, the son of Rukmani Kaur. Witnesses added that plumes of smoke were noticed coming out of the store room only 10 minutes after the flames were first reported. "They arrived on the spot ten minutes later when smoke started coming out of the store room. When they opened the door, a massive fireball barged into the room. Everybody panicked and fled the spot. Later, the staff returned with some police personnel a few more minutes later and started the rescue operation and evacuated everyone but the six till the smoke turned into toxic gas," said Sheru Singh, the son of one of the victims. Witnesses said that attempts to put out the fire using the fire extinguisher failed after it was found to be malfunctioning. However, the superintendent of the SMS hospital, Dr Sushil Bhati, denied the deaths of any patient due to fire in Sunday's accident. "It was a special ICU for neurosurgery. All those patients were serious. Nobody died due to the fire. All of them were shifted to different wards. They died during the shifting and due to smoke." ACP Gandhinagar, Narayan Bajiya, said, "No case has been lodged so far. However an FSL team was sent to examine the burnt ICU. It is yet not clear how many fire distinguishers were in place. However, the ICU had only one exit gate causing more suffocation. A team from the Jaipur police commissionerate will investigate the matter. We are also probing if there was any negligence from the hospital's part." The fire came under control in a half-an-hour effort by four fire vehicles from a nearby Jaipur Heritage Nagar Nigam fire station, which arrived at around 12 am. As per the directions of the health minister Gajendra Singh Khinvsar, the hospital superintendent Dr Sushil Bhati and the nodal officer of the trauma centre Dr Anurag Dharkad were removed from their posts while executive engineer of the SMS Hospital Mukesh Singhal was suspended. Meanwhile, Dr Mrinal Joshi and Dr BL Yadav were appointed as the acting superintendent of the SMS Hospital and acting nodal officer....