KOLKATA, India — Indian police are investigating the cause of a fire that killed 90 people in a hospital in Kolkata when poisonous fumes spread from the blaze in the building's basement.
Patients were lowered down the outside of the hospital on ropes after the fire broke out in the early hours of Friday at the privately-run AMRI hospital, engulfing the multi-storey premises in thick smoke.
Firefighters and staff smashed glass windows to evacuate some of the 160 patients, with local media alleging that fire alarms and extinguishers had not been working.
"In all, 90 bodies have been extricated from the hospital. 88 of these bodies have been identified and handed over to the relatives," Damayanti Sen, joint commissioner of police, told AFP on Saturday.
Sen, who is heading the team appointed to investigate the tragedy, added that all the deaths were due to the inhalation of toxic fumes which filled the wards in the middle of the night. Four staff were among the dead.
Initial investigations suggested the fire might have been started by a short circuit in the basement, which was used to store oxygen cylinders, plastic pipes, fibre coils, chemicals and medical equipment.
Fire engines had trouble reaching the hospital, which is surrounded by narrow roads, while hundreds of angry and distraught relatives gathered outside during the rescue operation.
Javed Khan, head of the fire service in West Bengal state -- of which Kolkata is the capital -- said the incident suggested gross negligence and serious violations of safety norms.
"There was a fire in 2008 in the same hospital and we are trying to probe how the authorities got their fire licence renewed," Khan told AFP.
Six senior executives from the two companies that co-owned the hospital were due to appear in court later Saturday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the site on Friday, said they could face charges of culpable homicide.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced his "shock and anguish" at the heavy loss of life.
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India | Updated Dec 10, 2011 at 11:51am IST
Kolkata fire: AMRI directors to appear in court
Kolkata: The six directors of the AMRI hospital in south Kolkata are likely to be produced before a court on Saturday. A case of negligence among others has been filed against them after a fire in the hospital claimed 90 lives on Friday.
Sources say that Friday's tragedy could have been avoided had the private hospital heeded warning about its fire safety norms.
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.
Damayanti Sen said, "in the month of July, the fire service department held an inspection at the hospital and found fire safety mechanism inadequate. They instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade the mechanism and especially instructed them to clear the basement."
Meanwhile Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee visited the hospital on Friday night. He also met the injured who have been admitted to the SSKM hospital.
"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," Pranab said.
The Friday morning fire
It was at 3:30 am on Friday morning that the devastating fire that would claim at least 90 lives began in the basement of the AMRI Hospital. Relatives of the victims though say the hospital knew that the fire had begun as early as 1 am. But it was only at 4:45 am that the first fire tender reached the spot.
When a CNN-IBN team reached the site they found rescue officials desperately coping with the mammoth task of evacuating hundreds of patients locked inside smoke filled rooms of the hospital.
Critical patients were 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.
The families of the trapped patients waited outside in anxiety, and a few hours later for many of them their worst fears were confirmed.
Aftermath of the fire
The official death toll from the fire in the private hospital is said to 88, with many injured still being deemed as critical.
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.
Political reactions
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed "shock and anguish" over loss of lives in a massive fire that broke out in a Kolkata hospital and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
Singh also conveyed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy, a PMO spokesman said.
Not just the Prime Minister, even the Trinamool Congress expressed their grief over the hospital fire. The TMC said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was correct is cancelling the hospital's license as there were major lapses on the part of the hospital authorities.
"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 for one and half, two hours they allowed the fire to surge ahead," said TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
"It is condemnable that the authorities didn't take proper notice of the serious misconduct on the part of the administration. and the CM Mamata has already ordered cancellation of their license," Kakoli added.
West Bengal Health Minister Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said that he was shocked and surprised that a super specialty hospital like AMRI did not have proper fire safety norms.
"Yes its a super specialty hospital and it is surprising that there were no fire safety norms. Mamata is state health minister and she is concerned," said Bandhyopadhyay.
Here are the names of 21 people identified out of the 73 who died in the AMRI Hospital fire:
Aparna Chatterjee
Dipali Das
Prabal Chandra Das
Nina Bose
Nila Dasgupta
Shyamacharan Pal
Nepal Chandra Gupta
Ritu Kumari
Shiva Paswan
Moonmoon Chakrobarty
Mira Mukherjee
Sasadhar Mullik
Mr Mog
Rajkumar Bisdwas
Sandhya Biswas
Tushar Kanti Banerjee
Debobroto Mahato
Sushama Verma
Nalini Das
Hiramnoy Saha
Parama Chaktrobaerty
Full coverage
Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this storyFire: city hospitals vulnerable1 hour ago - The HinduAMRI hospital fire in Kolkata: Omar Abdullah asks home dept to do safety audit ...18 hours ago - Times of IndiaTears and anger at Calcutta hospital blaze19 hours ago - BBC NewsAt least 73 killed in Kolkata hospital blaze20 hours ago - Economic TimesVideos
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