Behrampore: A fire in Murshidabad Medical College claimed three lives, including that of a two-year-old, and injured at least 25 on Saturday. Four patients are still missing and a dozen nurses are among those hurt.
The tragedy exposes how no lessons have been learnt from earlier fires, the emergency exits in the hospital were locked, just as in the Stephen Court (2010) and AMRI (2011) disasters, which had together killed 130.
The dead include two-year-old Pallab Mandal, who was being treated for pneumonia, ayah Ujjala Hajra and Kaberi Das, a relative of a patient. While the child is said to have died due to asphyxiation, the other two were killed in the stampede, which could have been avoided if the emergency exit was open.
Babies recuperating in neonatal care were bundled down in desperation, gasping for air. Patients were seen hobbling down the stairs in panic, IV drips dragging after them. Some were either too ill or too injured, so they had to be carried.Many tried to jump over stairwells and there were frantic attempts to pass patients handover-hand over the stampeding crowd. Witnesses say fire engines took almost 30 minutes to arrive although the fire station is barely 500m away.
The state ordered a CID probe into the cause of the fire and to check if safety measures suggested by the fire department a few years ago were implemented. Former health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who visited the hospital, claimed the fire was a case of "sabotage" and an effort to "malign" the Mamata Banerjee government. Officials believe a short circuit in an air-conditioning machine started the fire in the storeroom attached to the VIP cabin on the first floor around 11.30am.Within minutes the first and second floors were engulfed in thick, dark smoke. Next to the store room is the male surgical ward while the floor right above houses the female ward and sick newborn care unit (SNCU). Before most people could understand what was happening, flames started leaping out of the VIP cabin and a blanket of smoke engulfed the hospital building. Then, the screams started.
Some ayahs, who knew about the emergency exit, rushed there, guiding the others, but they were shocked to see the door locked. The keys couldn't be found. All hell broke loose as everyone tried to rush out of the building down a single staircase. Most of the injuries too happened in the stampede. "Thank God, my relatives were visiting me just then. I am unable to walk properly. If they hadn't carried me down to safety I would have died of suffocation," said Nagabasi Biswas, a 94-yearold from Behrampore.
There were 722 patients admitted in the hospital on Saturday. It was bursting at the seams when the fire broke out in visiting hour. A bigger tragedy was avoided because the hospital has large windows to let out the smoke and heat and ample open space. A note from Nabanna put the death toll at two and injured at seven. The government announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased. The health department has set up a committee to probe the incident and suggest measures to prevent a repeat.