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Kolkata: A day after
India saw its worst hospital fire, the AMRI Hospital Annexe 1
building Saturday stood like a ghost building with pieces of
glasspanes and stone slaps strewn all around, soot and blood
stained floors, the smell of death and smoke still in the air and
fire brigade personnel on guard -- a grim reminder of the
holocaust.
The two other blocks, which usually bustle with patients, doctors,
and their relatives and were untouched by the deadly fire, sported
a deserted look with most of those admitted having been shifted
elsewhere by their family members.
The devastating fire that broke out early Friday in the well-known
hospital in South Kolkata's middle class Dhakuria neighbourhood
killed 90 and injured over 50. The injured, many of them battling
for life, were moved to other city hospitals.
Meanwhile, of the 87 bodies that were taken to the morgue of the
state-run SSKM hospital, about six km from the hospital, 85 have
been identified and will be handed over to their grief-stricken
relatives.
The body of 65-year old Bangladesh resident Gouranga Mandal, who
was in the ICU of the block, was to be flown home Saturday
afternoon. "We have been paid the plane fare and Rs.10,000. The
West Bengal government has also taken care to embalm my
grandfather's body," Mandal's grandson Rakkhit Roy told IANS on
phone from the NSC Bose International Airport.
The state government has already sealed and cancelled the licence
of the Annexe 1 block of the hospital - co-founded by the private
Emami & Shrachi Groups along with the West Bengal government in
1996.
Seven of the hospital directors, including Shrachi Group chairman
S.K. Todi and his counterpart in the Emami Group R.S. Goenka,
arrested on non-bailable offences including attempt to commit
culpable homicide and negligence causing a fire, will be produced
in the Alipore Court Saturday.
One of the seven directors, R.S. Agarwal got himself admitted at a
private hospital Friday evening and has been kept under arrest
there.
The forensic experts are slated to visit the spot of the tragedy
later in the day to collect samples to determine the cause of the
fire, amidst allegation that the basement where the flames
originated was stacked with excessively combustible materials. The
hospital, has, however denied the charge.
The pre-dawn fire broke out at 3.30 a.m. Friday in the Advanced
Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI), catching many in their
sleep. While most nurses, doctors and other staffers were able to
get away, many critically ill patients suffocated to death in
their hospital beds.
The tragedy unfolded over many hours. Some were suffocated, some
were too infirm to escape the toxic fumes. The lucky few were
brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building
using ropes and ladders, even as thousands watched in horror.
The fire brigade, many alleged, came over two hours late. The fire
brigade blamed it on narrow lanes leading to the hospital.
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