Death toll exceeds 30: Kolkata hospital fire

Death toll exceeds 30: Kolkata hospital fire

More than 30 people are feared dead due to the immense fire caused in a hospital in Kolkata, one of the major cities of India. Most of the expired victims are believed to be patients, who died because of smoke intake.

The Deputy Police Commissioner, B. Dasgupta briefed AFP that more than 60 people were rescued from the fire. “I can confirm that at least 30 people have lost their lives in the incident,” he added.

Majority of the victims were patients, who were unable to flee from the situation while most of the visitors safely made their way out of the hospital.

Brigade director, Gopal Bhattacharya articulated that, “We have shifted 50 patients to an adjacent hospital. The situation is grim at the moment.”

He also told that the preliminary investigations disclosed that the fire initiated in the basement of five-storey AMRI Hospital.

The fire initiated around 3:00am, which remained uncontrollable for almost five hours, but the fire brigade brought the fire under control by 9:00am. However, a large amount of smoke was produced from fire, which continued causing trouble to firemen, who
were trying to escort patients and other victims safely out of the hospital.

One of the visitor told AFP that, “My mother is in the intensive care unit. She’s 70 years old. I don’t know if she is alive or not.”

Jyoti Chaudhary, a patient who was admitted just a week earlier said, “I was terrified, I kept shouting for help. Finally, a nurse dragged me out of the ward and got me down to the ground floor.

Nevertheless, many local media channels have reported death toll to be more than 40 while in some reported deaths of over 50 people.

The incident rapidly gained attention of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, who arrived at the site and tried to calm the angry relatives, who were blaming the emergency services for their poor response to the situation.

However, the Chief Minister has assured that a full investigation of the case will be carried out and the hospital will face the consequences, if evidence against the poor standard of fire prevention was found.