West Bengal hospital fire kills 2, CID to probe

A fire at state-run Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital claimed at least two lives. The fire broke out a little before Saturday noon. The blaze originated from an AC machine in the VIP cabin of the male surgical ward on the first floor.

“People panicked and everybody started running in order to escape the fire. This led to a stampede in which two women died,” the director of health services, Mr Biswaranjan Satpathy, said. Nearly nine people were injured.

Initially, it was believed that both the deceased were nursing aides, known as ayahs. However, when their identities were established, it became clear that one of them — Kaberi Sarkar, 44, popularly known as Mamoni — was a carer, while the other woman, Ujjwala Hazra, 45, was the mother of a patient, Abhijit Hazra. The Mamata Banerjee government ordered a CID enquiry to probe whether it was an accidental fire or there was any element of sabotage behind it. Although officially, only two persons died due to the fire, two more deaths occurred at Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital around the same time. A woman patient, Zaibun Nisa, 50, died of heart attack while climbing down the stairs of the hospital in panic. A two-and-a-half-year-old child, Pallabi Mondal, also passed away. However, the hospital authorities claimed the cause of her death was pneumonia. Sources said she had also fallen down the stairs. The fire broke out in an empty cabin, however, it was dangerously close to the Sick Newborn Care Unit which had many babies.

Some panic-stricken parents even tried to rescue their babies after smashing the window panes. The local people also rushed to help the patients, particularly the babies, some of whom fell sick due to the thick black smoke.

A stampede was triggered when a large number of people tried to rush out but they found the emergency exit locked. Precious time was lost in searching for the key. “We broke the lock,” a nursing aide said. Patients complained that at the time of the fire, no senior hospital official was present.

Adequate fire safety measures, too, were not present in the hospital. On chief minister’s directive, former health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and transport minister Suvendu Adhikari rushed to Murshidabad on a fact-finding mission.

This was the second incident of fire in a state-run hospital in the state. A week ago, a fire broke out in the operation theatre (OT) of Katwa sub-divisional hospital in Burdwan district. Even the Katwa fire had originated from an air conditioning machine when the OT was being readied for surgeries. Fortunately, there was no casualty in Katwa hospital fire.