Broken window panes, bedsheets used in rescue of patients lay scattered in the premises of the AMRI hospital in a stark reminder of the trail of destruction caused by the inferno that suffocated over 90 people, mostly patients, to death. While the hospital administration failed badly in saving lives of it’s patients from fire, an unlikely savior, nearby slum inhabitants came for the rescue

It was not just raw courage that brought the slum dwellers into the limelight. Showing immense presence of mind, they twisted the streetlamps to throw light on the hospital compound, where the lights had gone out immediately after the fire began. After being denied entry into the compound by the guards, they broke the boundary wall and cut the barbed wires. Over 100 of them entered through the holes to start the rescue work

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the state government would order a judicial probe into the AMRI Hospital fire accident even as six directors of the institution were remanded in police custody for 10 days. Magistrate SM Shahnawaz Khan directed the Kolkata police to produce RS Goenka, SK Todi, Manish Goenka, Prashant Goenka, Ravi Todi and DN Agarwal before the court on December 20. The custody was for “deliberately not taking precautionary measures to avoid fire”, which has caused the death of 91 patients so far. The patients died mostly due to suffocation.

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