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Update at 9:36 a.m. ET: The Kolkata hospital where a blaze killed scores of people has denied any violations of safety measures after the West Bengal chief minister ordered that its license be withdrawn. The death toll from the fire has now risen to 89.
Satyabrata Upadhyay, senior vice president of the AMRI hospital company, said the loss of life was "extremely unfortunate and painful." Upadhyay also said the compensation that would be given to families of those killed would be 200,000 rupees (about $4,000).
Update at 8:30 a.m. ET: The death toll from the fire at the hospital in Kolkata has grown to 88 as attention turns to the 6 workers who have been charged with culpable homicide.
"It was horrifying that the hospital authorities did not make any effort to rescue trapped patients," said Subrata Mukherjee, West Bengal state minister for public health engineering. "Senior hospital authorities ran away after the fire broke out."
The region's highest official described the fire as an "unforgiveable tragedy." According to India's NDTV, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee vowed "the harshest punishment possible" for those found responsible. Banerjee said the fire services authorities and the police had cautioned the AMRI Hospital authorities in September about its basement, where the fire started. "AMRI had given an undertaking, but did not keep it," she said.
As the fire raged, rescue workers on long ladders smashed windows in the upper floors of the AMRI Hospital to pull trapped patients out before they suffocated from smoke inhalation, while sobbing relatives waited on the street below. Rescue workers took patients on stretchers and in wheelchairs to a nearby hospital.
Update at 7:18 a.m. ET: Six hospital officials have been charged with culpable homicide over the fire that killed 73 people in a hospital in Kolkata, India, police tell The Associated Press.
Update at 4:40 a.m. ET: One patient, Moon Moon Chakraborty, who was in the Kolkata hospital where at least 73 people died in a fire, called her husband at home to tell him it had broken out. "She had died by the time I reached the hospital," her husband, S. Chakraborty said.
Government officials in India are accusing hospital staff of abandoning patients as flames ripped through a hospital building in Kolkata, a large city in the east of the nation. Natalie Morales reports.
Update at 4:27 a.m. ET: India's West Bengal government has canceled the AMRI Hospital's license, The Times of India reports. The fire began in the hospital's basement, where medical waste and chemicals were reportedly stored.
Published at 3:51 a.m. ET: Some medical staff at an Indian hospital abandoned their patients and fled for safety early Friday as fire and smoke poured through the building, leaving at least 73 people dead, many from smoke inhalation, India's NDTV station reported.
As rescuers scrambled to evacuate survivors, police filed a case against the hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata for violating safety procedures and top government officials vowed to hold the hospital accountable for the tragedy.
"It's a very serious offense, and we will take the strongest action," Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of the state of West Bengal, said at the scene.
Bikas Das / AP
Rescue officials climb on ladders to enter into rooms after a fire broke out at a hospital in Kolkata, India, on Friday.
The hospital authority promised to compensate the families of those killed, the Times of India reported.
Firefighters on long ladders smashed windows in the upper floors of the AMRI Hospital to pull trapped patients out before they suffocated, while sobbing relatives waited on the street below. Rescue workers took patients on stretchers and in wheelchairs to a nearby hospital.
NDTV reported 70 of those killed were patients, while the other three were hospital staff. Many of them died from suffocation.
The blaze erupted in the building's basement, and heavy smoke quickly engulfed the hospital. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
S. Upadhay, a senior vice president of the AMRI hospital company, said there were 160 patients in the 190-bed hospital annex at the time of the blaze.
The Times of India said 85 patients were rescued, but reported that the hospital authority would not confirm the condition of the 75 other patients. The latest reported death toll was 73, leaving two people unaccounted for, according to the Times' report.
Security guards said don't worry
People living in a massive slum close to the hospital first noticed the fire and smoke, according to witnesses. Some of them rushed to the hospital and raised an alarm, but security guards kept them back, saying there was a small fire in the kitchen and there was nothing to worry about. As the smoke enveloped the building, the slum dwellers joined in the rescue effort.
It took firefighters more than an hour to arrive after the blaze started, said Pradeep Sarkar, a witness. His uncle was hospitalized hours earlier after suffering a heart attack at home, and he was moved to a nearby hospital after the fire broke out for treatment.
The narrow streets in the neighborhood apparently made it difficult for the unwieldy fire trucks to get close to the building and for fire fighters to bring in the big hydraulic ladders needed to evacuate those trapped inside. Eventually, they smashed the main gate to make way for the ladders.
Banerjee said that while the fire brigade was delayed, police arrived quickly to help with the rescue effort.
Dozens of fire engines eventually arrived at the hospital. By midmorning, the fire was under control and most of the patients had been evacuated to other hospitals in the area, said Javed Khan, the state fire services minister.
But state officials said the hospital staff did nothing to aid in the rescue operations.
"It was horrifying that the hospital authorities did not make any effort to rescue trapped patients," said Subrata Mukherjee, state minister for public health engineering. "Senior hospital authorities ran away after the fire broke out."
Sirhad Hakeem, a minister in the West Bengal government, said the hospital basement was being used as a storage area, although it was originally planned as a parking lot.
Update at 2:12 a.m. ET: Senior Indian official says 61 bodies have been recovered from a hospital in Kolkata, India, after a fire erupted in the basement of the building.
Update at 2:08 a.m. ET: Officials say at least 46 people have died in a fire at a hospital in Kolkata, India.
Update at 2 a.m. ET Friday: Officials say at least 35 people have been killed in a fire at a hospital in Kolkata, India, The Associated Press reports. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says most of the dead had suffocated, and implied that hospital negligence caused the tragedy. "It's a very serious offense, and we will take the strongest action," she says at the scene.
The fire has now been brought under control and most patients have been evacuated, the AP says.
Published at 11 p.m. ET Thursday: KOLKATA, India - At least 20 people are feared dead in a fire that struck a hospital in this eastern Indian city, officials said Friday.
Officials said at least 40 patients appeared to be trapped on upper floors after the fire broke out early Friday in the basement, the BBC reported. Rescuers were trying to reach them.
"Patients have suffocated on the fumes. Many have lost their lives," West Bengal Urban Development Minister Farhad Hakim told reporters, according to the BBC.
Many patients have been evacuated and moved to other hospitals, the BBC reported.
A correspondent at the scene told BBC radio that fire trucks were having a difficult time reaching the scene because of narrow streets around the hospital.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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My sincere condolences for the dead and the injured.
Wow, $4,000 for accidental death.
The 1% really do think life is cheap in that part of the world.
I hope they file a class action suit if the hospital is found negligent. The people of India deserve better.
RIP... India's infastructure and design is just awful.. "A correspondent at the scene told BBC radio that fire trucks were having a difficult time reaching the scene because of narrow streets around the hospital." WHAT???? good god... unbelievable
You have to understand that India is an ancient country. Those narrow lanes were made when there were no motorized traffic. Some of the buildings are older than the US or Canada. It is easy to point a finger at infrastructure without knowing the facts. At that time people either walked or used horses and donkeys for transportation. Wide roads were not necessary. I am from Old Delhi and there are thousands of buildings, 200 years and more old still standing. Some lanes are only wide enough for two horses to pass by. It is not possible to tear down every building and rebuild them.
But it is possible to install a sprinkler system into a hospital. India is a backwards society with a disgusting culture of corruption and violence. This comes as no surprise.
Perhaps Vishnu will send a gigantic earthquake to knock down all of the buildings. Then they can build something at least semi modern.
Yes, lets display religious bigotry and intolerance in a tragic event. Thats of course, the "Christian" thing to do...
Yes, Darkus - since the corruption in the US is only to the tune of hundreds of millions by politicians and WallStreet - we should focus on a country with one-third living way below poverty line....
Pat
It is possible to tear them down and rebuild. It has been done all through Europe and is still done in America. It is not putting priorities where they should be.
Simply build a hospital in an area with easy access...!!! The picture shows a modern building. If they had zoning laws, this hospital would have not been built on streets so narrow. India DOES have streets wider than 2 horses!
Sounds like 3 staff that stayed to help, died in their actions. 6 ran and are still alive. Tough to condemn the 6 because we were not there, and we do not understand what was going on in the building. Not enough information. The story indicates they "ran". That alone does raise some questionable flags...
I do agree with the post above about sprinklers. Fire suppression measures are an absolute necessity. One can't get past that important detail.
Jackie,
While I don't agree with his comments, RackNStack never indicated he was Christian.
Mitigating one bad circumstance (poor infrastructure and corruption in India) with another (US politics) doesn't justify the first. That's called a red herring...this article is about a fire in India, not any corruption in the US.
Why is it then that many other "ancient countries" in Europe and Asia have been able to modernize their major cities to accomodate current modes of traffic?
A lot of things seem perfectly reasonable especially when your not the one who actually has to do it.
Seems like there is always some major catastrophe happening in India??
Jackie,
Ugh... what a dumb comment.
RacknStack never even said that he/she was Christian.
Jackie is just a troll hoping to start some stupid religious debate. This is about a FIRE at a hospital in INDIA. Let's stay on subject here.
My sincere condolences to the victims and their families :( I can't even imagine going through something so tragic...
@Jaime777,
Thank you for having a voice of reason in regards to this horrible tragedy. I echo your sentiments of condolences to the victims and their loved ones/friends.
Before passing judgment, try to remember that the Indian civilization has been around for about 3,000 years longer than Western civilization - and the United States has had cities for only a couple of hundred. We have no idea how crowded and crumbling the West might be in another millenia... if we even survive. Compared to India, there is no place in Europe that counts as "ancient" - when Rome was a village, India was already an ancient civilization.
Pat thats exactly correct. Amercians don't understand History or the age of cities around the world, it's all text book knowledge so hands on knowledge for most people in the USA is less then 3 % while more then 75% don't know where India is to start with let alone Asia Minor.
Asia Minor? Umm, there is no modern Asia Minor -- it's called Turkey now.
That is the place Turkey is. It's not like "Asia minor" was ever a country.
Ron was saying people don't know a city much less a large area or continent. Sheish
Dude if you would stop your America bashing for just a bit you'd realize that India does not have a monopoly on ancient cities. You dont hear these stories coming out of Spain or Italy where some streets cannot be navigated by a mid sized sedan.. but that is because they have procedures in places in case stuff happens along with a good chance that if you fail you'd probably be held responsible.
Problem is the Indian mentality doesnt allow such procedures to exist or be followed. Indian culture is not big on planning for such things, and rewards anyone who manages to get by while skirting regulations. If you study how their society functions, and why it does the way it does, you'll see that its not just about ancient cities that are not built for modern fire trucks.
Al718 - I suspect, thats probably because India isnt as rich as all the colonial nations that are part of the US/Europe.
Poverty sort of inhibits the ability to modernize everything...considering there was a slum next door, i'm gonna go out on a limb and say this might not have been the most modernized/wealthy part of India...though, those parts definitely exist.
And this DID happen in America folks...New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina.
How soon you dopes all forget...America the great aint so great either, despite all her money...you cant force people to be humane and care about their fellow man.
My heart goes out to the people in Kolkata. You are in my prayers.
May God's comfort be with them. May God's grace and mercy be with them.
Hope there is no more further deaths.
Condolensces and prayers go to the victims' loved ones.
Those poor people. I hope they get the survivors out of there, a hospital is supposed to be a safe place.
The only decent infrastructure India has is what the British left them... Old and outdated, but still better than anything they have ever been able to come up with themselves...
They need to thin the herd as much as possible. This is just a drop in the bucket for the amount of people killed everyday in that screwed up country..
That was true until 80s. Not anymore.
No, Harry. They have built buildings far more modern and comfortable than anything the British left behind. It's only a matter of money, not smarts.
You never heard of the Taj Mahal?
The Taj Mahal was made by Muslims and the Hindus have just taken the credit...
India is a @!$%#hole. Plain and simple..
It is the closest thing to hell on earth... I will never go back.
One mother@!$%#er less in India.
Tragic.
Thomas Friedland likes to talk in his Sunday column about how "modern" India is; I wonder what he has to say about this. India's modernization is about as real as a Bollywood set. More people are sliding into misery every day there than in all of Africa.
Not true. Its a land of contradictions. The country has so huge with so many different cross currents - social economic political - that contradictions is a common place. In mumbai you have a $2B residence. No kidding.
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My condolences to the families of these patients; India has been and always will be a place to die as a result of incompetence. Even though this next comment is a tangent, it still needs to be made: anyone who would go to India for a medical procedure (medical tourism) because it is less expensive than the United States is asking for trouble. Being burned alive in a hospital is one such risk, however the lower competence levels of India's health care workers and the poorly followed regulations is the greatest.
And this is why India is not, and never will be, a true world power.
I am an Indian and it hurts to see the comments made here but they're not really far from truth. Fact that innocent people die every day just because of sheer callousness of people in power and incompetent beureaucracy tells a lot about state of affairs. Everyone who can do something in India is busy making money by corrupt practices. The honest one's who dare are killed by thugs and criminals. Progress, Modernization has only help those who were already rich. We have the biggest population of people below poverty. Government defines poor as someone who earns 32 Rs or 75 cents a day. Anyone earning more than that is not poor in govt's eyes. and yet we have more than 400 mn poor even by that definition. My country is screwed up because we elected fools as our leaders who chose to keep all the money for themselves and their grandchilren while most of us remained illiterate and ignorant. I still have hope that not all is lost. We will get to where developed nations are today. It will take time and unfortunately people will continue to suffer till that day.
America must have been pretty easy to adapt to then?
This has nothing to do with being a world power or not, we have fires here too. This is a tragic loss of life, that likely would not have been as bad if the security guard had done his job. I was not there so, I won't blame anyone directly. Still after reading the story I would look closely at security guards.
Tell me the last time 70 people died in a hospital fire here in the United States. 1930, maybe?
I was thinking about how the security guard was "TOLD" about the fire, and did nothing. The story read "He said it was a small kitchen fire". I just thought that, if an alarm, or evacuations started then. I don't think that the fire would have had time to be as bad as it was. A lot of people could have been saved.
Rack, ok I see the point you are trying to make. Are you also saying that it COULD NOT happen here? Their streets, buildings and infrastructure may suck. I only meant that fires can start anywhere. They have fires here, there, or anywhere. The fire started in the basement? Where chemicals and medical waste is stored. That sounds like a fire waiting for a place to happen to me.
No, it couldn't happen in the United States. All of those 'oppressive regulations' that we bitch about (myself included) are what prevents crap like this from happening here. OSHA has health care facilities on a pretty short leash with how they handle their hazardous materials. This happened because of negligence at many levels, not just the security guard.
Good point about the "big government, job killing regulations" some like to complain about. A friend of mine died falling backward through a sliding glass door in a foreign country. He bled out from a cut artery before he could make it to the hospital? Why? Because are were no building codes in that country which require tempered glass in sliding glass doors. Govt regulations protect us from all kinds of stuff like this in addition to fire hazards in hospitals.
One might point out the station night club fire where the owners for the night decided the "job killing regulations" were too strict and decided to ignore several of them for the night. Not as many people, but way more than needed to if the owners had listened to regulations and not changed things the second the fire marshal turned his back.
I would like to remind everyone that a LARGE portion of our fire regulations are made AFTER the fact, they are made when people die. In the NFPA process everyone gets an EQUAL place at the table. It is HIGHLY regulated how many people from each industry or section gets to sit and make decisions about EVERY CODE. There are literal rules about there being certain number from the design companies, the building owners, the professional designers, the government, etc.
I've devoted my life to fire protection and the number of times I've heard/seen an owner try to turn around and cut safety just to save a buck is sickening, to be rebuffed by the safety regulators. Then there are the times this fails, or liability comes into play, or a lawyer comes out of the woodwork, and suddenly people think that if it saves a buck a fire can't possibly happen to them.
.
Really!!! Compensate the families???? OK, Lets see, how much is my mom, husband, child worth.....
Unfortunately its a common practice in India by central and state governments. People die in train accidents, building collapses, bomb blasts and all govt does is compensate them. A lot of people die on roads as they can not be rushed to hospitals because the roads are blocked for VIP movements. We're so used to incompetence and corrupt, inept leaders and officials is that no one questions them anymore. We DO however question people who try to change the system.
In their generosity the hospital will be paying each victim's family $4000.00. That's right, four thousand dollars. This information is available on the Time of India's site.
It's only a miracle this stuff doesnt happen more often, when these kind of standards are in place...as in....none.
Take your botox vacay to a distant land, It may be your last!
What can you expect from a country where bathing in the "Holy Ganges" aka "the World's Largest Open Sewer" - is considered a sacred act?
The families will be compensated for their loss? How do you compensate someone for the loss of a family member through reckless acts of another person? Security guards refused to allow residents of a nearby slum onto the property to assist when they reported the fire. Is this due to the caste system that India is determined to hang on to? The would be rescuers were not deemed good enough to be on hospital grounds by the security guards? These guards need to face prosecution right along side the hospital administration. Fire trucks could not get to the scene. This is not uncommon in India where slum commmunities spring up blocking roads. This is an unfortunate tragedy but it only brings to light the corruption that is rampant at all levels of government in India. The inspectors who are responsible for oversight of this kind of a facility need also be brought in to account for why they allowed this kind of a situation to exist in the first place.
Caste system !! no, its no more a question of caste. There's a new system of have's and have not's. In the age of modernization and 8% GDP growth, a lot of people have lagged behind. A lot of them are upper caste folks as well as they tried to cling on their centuries old beliefs. Now a days people who look poor are kicked out irrespective of their caste.
"Senior hospital authorities ran away after the fire broke out."
Sounds like Fanny May and Freddie Mac.
The fire was unfortunate, but then again, India is a little different.
The principal problem is the huge population of India.The city of Kolkata or Calcutta is, more so.The police and the justice systems are usually overwhelmed and/or corrupt.Safety measures at the hospital are almost voluntary.
In many Asian countries, Govt Officials are very good at 'finger-pointing' after the fact! My question is - Did the Govt check and ensure that a public building like a hospital had a Fire Control system and whether frequent checks were made that the whole system was operational? IF the hospital did not have such a system, no amount of accusations and counter accusations are going to bring back the dead. Perhaps such mandatory checks will be made in existing Public Buildings and those that are built in the future!
The CEO's are safe. The Politicians are safe. Bureaucrats are safe. The poor patents are dead. Jai Hind.
When the U.S. is successful in eliminating our health and safety regulating entities, we can expect this to happen here, because it will be just too damned expensive to install, repair or replace sprinkler systems (for example). That would eat into the hospital's profits.
When the U.S. is successful in eliminating minimum wage laws, we can, within a decade or two, perhaps three, expect wages to be around 75 cents an hour. If we're lucky, maybe $5.00 a day.
But it won't happen to "you" (The collective "you" not you, bitteruglytruth) because "you're" too good an employee. "You're" irreplaceable. "You're" not expendable.
I am with you. That's the bitter and ugly truth. What's the point in blaming the politicians and bueraucrats. How is our common (main street) man any different?
Corruption is so rampant, it's now ingrained in Indian psyche. What I don't get is how do we not understand what's good for us in the long-term. Why were those roads and gates not widened? Has no one wondered that it is a health hazard. I am not a smart man. If I wondered, there are 'many' Indians responsible for that infrastructure who thought about it and did nothing. Exactly how much short-sighted self-interest does it take to not understand the 'slightly' greater good and 'slightly' longer term self-interest to work on a better infrastructure? Even that, we lack it.
I believe lack of social awareness, lack of any sense of responsibility towards anyone beyond immediate family, has become a part of Indian racial-DNA. I have no other way to explain why can we individually succeed world over, but fail miserably as a society. And yes, I agree with some one else commenting that the only decent infrastructure that exists, even today, is what's left by the British. Not for lack of skill; but simply the deep-rooted asocial nature and mind-boggling apathy towards long-term self-interest.
My heart goes out to those poor souls in the hospital. My heart goes out to the beggars crowding the street, when we 'chosen few' sit in a restaurant chatting about our progress, completely oblivious to the poverty and hunger all around us.
R.I.P.
@sad & Tired Indian
after reading your comments, I must disagree with one thing you have said - that you are not a smart man. I would have to say that you seem to me a smart man....very smart indeed
I believe that if all Indians were pulling on the same rope - no one could beat them; unfortunately, you have described succinctly why they, as a counrty, will continue to lag behind
Now if the fire consumed about a billion people, then India's overpopulation problem would be significantly improved. We're no different than any other animal species. Crowd too many deer in one area without sufficient resources and you'll get a die off.
Well, yeah Rack, that's right but it was a fire, not something caused by the natural course of events. The same excuse can be made for war. Pack too many people in one place and Nature will find a way to eliminate the over-crowding, like a disease, or, fewer females born.
Lol, isn't India one of the countries, among many in the world, that is held up for having superior health care when compared to America? I guess they don't consider fire protection as relevant.
My heartfelt condolences to the loved ones in the families of those who passed away due to no fault of theirs.
It is sad to know that Indians do indulge in too much politics instead using their resources, intelligence and brilliance to upgrade the Infra Structures to the standards of the 21st century.
When placing blame, start at the bottom. In the basement to be exact. The article states that the hospital had been cited for its unsafe conditions (human waste and chemical storage). This was human error, human cowardice and human indifference combining for a deadly outcome. My condolences to the families of those lost and to the survivors and their families as well.
Lawful, it seems that in India the basic cause isn't relevant, only the sensationalism is relevant. The hospital was cited for unsafe conditions, right, but that doesn't matter. Remember the Bhopal incident when Monsanto was said to be at fault? The Indian management of the company failed to maintain proper maintenance standards and as a result many Indians lost their lives. Whose fault? Lol, certainly not India's, it was the fault of American owned Monsanto. Well, anyway, Mondanto made periodic inspections and warned about not maintaining good maintenance. Lol, "We don't need Americans telling us how to run the company."