The National Human Rights Commission on February 8 issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over a fire at a hospital in Noida which was functioning "without a fire licence".

The fire had broken out at the Metro Hospitals and Heart Institute on February 7, trapping several people inside the multi-storeyed building but no casualty was reported. "The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports about a massive fire which broke out in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Metro Hospitals and Heart Institute in Sector-12, Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar," it said in a statement.

Reportedly, 66 patients were admitted in the hospital out of which 16 were in the ICU, when the fire broke out, the NHRC said. No one was seriously injured and all the patients were safely evacuated. Most of them were transferred to the Sector-11 branch of the hospital, which is about 500 metres away, it added.

The commission has issued the notice to the chief secretary, seeking a detailed report in six weeks. Describing the incident as grave, the NHRC has observed that several similar incidents have occurred in the past, in different parts of the country, where many human lives have been lost.

"Only the critically-ill patients are kept in the ICU of the hospitals. In case of a fire breaks out in such a facility, there are more chances of loss of human lives as the patients are not in a position to move at their own.

"It becomes strict responsibility of the hospital administration to take utmost care that the right to life of the patients, admitted in the hospital, is not violated," it added.

The hospital in Sector-12 was functioning without a fire licence that expired over five months ago, officials said February 7.