Kolkata: The six directors of the AMRI hospital, where a major fire killed at least 91 people on Friday, were on Saturday sent to police custody till December 20 by a Kolkata court.

A case of negligence, among others, has been filed against them. According to sources, the tragedy could have been avoided had the private hospital heeded warning about its safety norms.

Earlier, there were also reports of lawyers protesting outside the court, saying that they would not represent the directors.

Meanwhile, a minor fire was again discovered at the basement of the hospital.

One fire engine, which was already stationed at the hospital, doused the fire.

Earlier, the city’s joint commissioner, Damayanti Sen, said that the fire department had found AMRI’s safety systems inadequate and had instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade it in July this year.

Damayanti Sen said, “in the month of July, the fire service department held an inspection at the hospital and found fire safety mechanism inadequate. They instructed the hospital authorities to upgrade the mechanism and especially instructed them to clear the basement.”

Meanwhile Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee visited the hospital on Friday night. He also met the injured who have been admitted to the SSKM hospital.

“It is unfortunate that a tragedy of this kind occured in a place where people come to get well. The Chief Minister is handling the situation. The Centre is willing to help if asked by the state,” Pranab said.

The Friday morning fire

It was at 3:30 am on Friday morning that the devastating fire that would claim at least 90 lives began in the basement of the AMRI Hospital. Relatives of the victims though say the hospital knew that the fire had begun as early as 1 am. But it was only at 4:45 am that the first fire tender reached the spot.

When a CNN-IBN team reached the site they found rescue officials desperately coping with the mammoth task of evacuating hundreds of patients locked inside smoke filled rooms of the hospital.

Critical patients were trapped inside the smoke-filled ICU were the biggest casualties. In a desperate bid to rescue them, windows were broken.

Locals rushed in, as fire-fighters collapsed unable to cope with the smoke.

The families of the trapped patients waited outside in anxiety, and a few hours later for many of them their worst fears were confirmed.

Aftermath of the fire

The official death toll from the fire in the private hospital is said to be 90, with many injured still being deemed as critical.

The AMRI hospital has lost its license. It claims it had adequate fire safety equipments but for patients who were already receiving critical care confined to their beds, all they had were stairs to climb down from and help that came several hours too late.

Political reactions

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed “shock and anguish” over loss of lives in a massive fire that broke out in a Kolkata hospital and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.

Singh also conveyed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy, a PMO spokesman said.

Not just the Prime Minister, even the Trinamool Congress expressed their grief over the hospital fire. The TMC said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was correct is cancelling the hospital’s license as there were major lapses on the part of the hospital authorities.

“We think that there is definitely some negligence on the part of the authorities who were running this place and from what I gather that the common people from the locality wanted to break in and help the patients but they were not allowed by the authorities and nearly for one and half, two hours they allowed the fire to surge ahead,” said TMC leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

“It is condemnable that the authorities didn’t take proper notice of the serious misconduct on the part of the administration. and the CM Mamata has already ordered cancellation of their license,” Kakoli added.

West Bengal Health Minister Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said that he was shocked and surprised that a super specialty hospital like AMRI did not have proper fire safety norms.

“Yes its a super specialty hospital and it is surprising that there were no fire safety norms. Mamata is state health minister and she is concerned,” said Bandhyopadhyay.