Kolkata: It's been 24 hours since a major fire in AMRI hospital in Kolkata left 90 people dead, it has now emerged that the tragedy could have been avoided had the private hospital heeded warning about its fire safety forms.
The city's joint commissioner Damayanti Sen said that the fire department had found AMRI's safety systems inadequate and had instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade it in July this year. A case of negligence among others has been filed against six directors of the hospital. They are likely to be produced in court on Saturday. Meanwhile Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee visited the hospital on Friday night. Mukherjee also met the injured who have been admitted to the SSKM hospital.
When CNN-IBN team reached the site in the morning we found rescue officials desperately coping with the mammoth task of evacuating hundreds of patients locked inside smoke filled rooms of the hospital.
Critical patients trapped inside the smoke-filled ICU were the biggest casualties. In a desperate bid to rescue them, windows were broken, Locals rushed in, as fire-fighters collapsed unable to cope with the smoke. Families waited outside in anxiety, and a few hours later for many of them their worst fears were confirmed.
As the bodies were counted, CNN-IBN tried to go inside the hospital to find out what the patients may have gone through.
The AMRI hospital has lost its license. It claims it had adequate fire safety equipments but for patients who were already receiving critical care confined to their beds, all they had were stairs to climb down from and help that came several hours too late.
Union Home Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "It is unfortunate that a tragedy of this kind occured in a place where people come to get well. The Chief Minister is handling the situation. The Centre is willing to help if asked by the state."
Trinamool Congress leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, "We think that there is definitely some negligence on the part of the authorities who were running this place and from what I gather that the common people from the locality wanted to break in and help the patients but they were not allowed by the authorities and nearly two hours they allowed the fire to surge ahead. It’s condemnable that the authorities didn't take proper notice of the serious misconduct on the part of the administration and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already ordered cancellation of their license."
Twitter buzz: AMRI Hospital fire
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