Kolkata: A major fire broke out at the post-operative High Dependency Unit (HDU) in ESI Hospital, Sealdah early on Friday morning killing one person and triggering panic among other patients.
While about 80 patients from the ward were evacuated, one patient died due to breathlessness after inhaling smoke caused by the fire. However, police are waiting for the autopsy report to ascertain the cause of death. State Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose and Commissioner of Police (CP), Kolkata, Manoj Kumar Verma visited the hospital and took stock of the situation. Sources said, around 5 am on Friday a fire broke out in an air conditioning machine on the balcony of the male surgical ward. Within moments the gutted air conditioning machine exploded and the flames started spreading. The nurses and other staff members of the hospital immediately started evacuating the patients. A patient suffering from cancer felt breathless and soon died. The patient’s family alleged that he died after inhaling the smoke emitted from the gutted air conditioning machine. Meanwhile, the fire had spread to the HDU which was adjacent to the male surgical ward. Ten fire tenders were pressed into action in phases. The fire was controlled after almost seven hours. The cooling process was carried out for about two more hours to completely douse the flames.
Panic spread among the patients and their family members. Many rushed to the hospital to ensure their patients were safe. “I was in the ward when we saw the AC machine was on fire. It was a horrific situation. However, nurses and other staff helped us to evacuate,” said a patient with a plaster on his right leg.
“I was crying after seeing the fire. Almost all the patients were panic-stricken. The entire ward was covered in smoke,” said another patient.
All the patients were taken downstairs where they had to wait under the open sky for hours. Later, several patients were shifted to Maniktala ESI Hospital. Controversy cropped up about how a state-run hospital does not have any firefighting facility. Superintendent of the ESI hospital, Sealdah, Aditi Das reportedly said that the firefighting system installation is in progress for quite a long period. Till date, the work has not been completed. She reportedly claimed that the issue has been conveyed to higher authorities but to no effect. Meanwhile, state Labour minister Moloy Ghatak on Friday blamed the agency engaged by the Centre for inordinate delay in developing the latest firefighting mechanism at Sealdah ESI Hospital for the fire incident. “The agency was supposed to complete the work for developing the latest firefighting infrastructure 18 months ago but they have not done so. We believe that if they had not delayed their work and had given us a handover in due time, the fire incident could have been averted. We have lodged an FIR against the agency and a thorough enquiry will be done. If we find any lacunae, steps will be taken against the agency as per law,” Ghatak said. There are presently 13 ESI hospitals in the state that are run by the state but infrastructural work is executed by the Centre.