One patient died and five people were injured as a fire tore through a storeroom at Khulna Medical College Hospital early Wednesday, forcing doctors to evacuate 15 critically ill patients from an intensive-care unit.

The blaze began around 5:30 am in a room adjacent to the old ICU on the third storey of the four-storey building, said Dr Dilip Kundu, the unit’s in-charge. A short circuit set fire to old clothes and equipment stored there, he said, and the flames quickly spread, triggering explosions of oxygen cylinders and air-conditioning units that smashed a wall and blanketed the area in thick smoke.

Dr Kundu said one patient had died before the fire broke out and a second died as medical staff rushed to move the 15 ICU patients to safety.

Hospital employee Saidur Rahman (50), three senior staff nurses and a firefighter were injured while escaping the flames.

The fire service deployed 10 units and brought the blaze under control within about an hour.