How many more lives must be lost before fire safety and rescue measures are taken seriously? Last year, 43 people died when fire gutted the fifth and sixth floors of the Stephen Court building in Kolkata. A month before that, a fire accident in a commercial complex in Bangalore claimed nine lives and injured 68. Fire safety rules had been flouted with impunity in both the cases. Now, again in Kolkata, more than 90 lives have been consumed by fire at the Advanced Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) Hospitals at Dhakuria. This time it was even more heartbreaking — among those suffocated to death were many patients with restricted mobility. Only a few months ago, the fire service department had asked the hospital, a joint venture of two large industrial houses and the West Bengal government, to clear the encroachments in the basement and upgrade its fire safety mechanism. The directive was not followed, and the flammable material stored in the basement has now turned out to be the cause of the horrific accident. In the same hospital, there was a serious fire accident three years ago. Had the government agencies done their duty, and the hospital administrators complied with rules and stepped up their fire safety standards, many precious lives could have been saved.
When five major fire accidents occurred in large hospitals in London between January 2008 and February 2009, nobody died; in fact, not a single case of “significant adverse health affect” was reported. In Northwick Park Hospital, a large district-level health care facility, 123 patients, including the brain injured, were safely evacuated in 23 minutes. Periodic review and testing of the emergency preparedness plans in these hospitals had paid off. Attention to detail such as provision of a ski sheet and a rescue aid placed below the mattress of the hospital bed to smoothly evacuate non-ambulant patients, proved vital. Adopting more regulations but paying scant attention to compliance seems to be the Indian way. What is needed is an uncompromising commitment to safety. The central government's Standing Fire Advisory Council, whose recommendations were last updated in 1998, suggests that the response time — the period between alerting the fire station and the arrival of fire brigade at the accident location — must not be more than three minutes in the case of hazardous areas, and five minutes in others. In the AMRI hospital accident, the inordinate delay in alerting the fire brigade was compounded by the inexplicable response time of more than 15 minutes. The distribution of fire stations and their location within a large and congested city such as Kolkata need to be urgently reviewed. Every second saved and every improvement made will be critical.
Keywords: Kolkata hospital fire, AMRI hospital
Together with the arrested directors and their accomplices, the ministers heading the Health and the Fire ministries of that time should be given life imprisonment. This apart, the owners of AMRI should pay a compensation of Rs. 2 crores to the family of each dead patient and Re.1 crore to those who have been injured. West Bengal's Chief Minister must ensure that the tragic farce of New Delhi's Uphaar case does not recur here.
A Great Editorial that should make everyone think , act and respond immediately.The callousness of the hospital authorities is startling and disgusting. The sacrifice of the Kerala Nurses and the bravery of the nearby resident youths saving many patients mainly contributed in reducing the Death toll. We salute the Nurses for supreme sacrifice on duty.The Government and the agencies that be must bring the people who were responsible for this gruesome happening to book and immediately fine tune measures to improve safety standards across all hospitals.Everytime a tragedy of such magnitude happens , we hear everyone talking of emergency and long-term action plans but seldom implemented. The mushrooming of profit –motive hospitals with limited safety mechanisms is mainly due to lack of quality health care facility from the state.The Governments has been given a wake up call , unfortunately by a tragedy , and its high time they respond to it in all earnestness.
Heavy compensation payable to the victims by the culprits in this regard would discourage them from violating safety norms in constructing buildings.The public must also be trained to face the situation through mock drills as in the case of Japan where people are given drills to escape during earthquakes.
Today the fire department reported that the streets leading to the hospital were narrow. This is not acceptable. As part of plan approval process, the fire department is required to drive the fire engine to the hospital and checkout the width, radius of the streets leading to the hospital and also around the hospital before approving the facility. The fire started in the basement(?) and reached upper floors. This clearly indicates the floors were not properly sealed with fire safing at floor levels to prevent fire passage along the walls to upper floors. This is sometimes called chimney effect Exit stairs require fire rated walls and doors for the safe passage of people.
The article is a strong blow to the existing government norms and its attitude towards the public. Its a matter of sheer shame that the government cant abide by the rules and regulations posed by itself.
There must be fire drills which must be scheduled at every regular intervals for prevention of such horrifying incidents. Hats off to the editorial for exposing the true dirty picture of our leaders.
The most appropriate solution to avoid recurrence of such ghastly incidents in Indian conditions henceforth is to bring justice within a fortnight after the incident and sack the responsible people and put them in life imprisonment whether it is a rail mishap,road accident or school/ boat tragedy involving innocent people. Hon'ble Minister of Union/ State Govt. also must be unseated for failing to discharge duty effectively. Democracy is not a joke but a very serious committment to people.
I just browsed through the Website of AMRI. "www.amrihospitals.com". It is quite sad that the Website is still active. AMRI are claiming to be the best in everything. Here is a sample from the AMRI website
" At AMRI Dhakuria, Annexe Building, we bring you better facilities, enhanced equipment for more advanced treatment and a fully dedicated team of specialists, to look into your specific needs. With a 24*7 dedicated and experienced staff at disposal, one dedicated OT, state-of-the art equipment; one can enjoy all facilities under one roof. " .....
What's our government doing ? First thing the government must do is Transfer all the patients to other super speciality hospitals and seal the hospital. All innocent staff of AMRI shall be paid full salary till everything comes to normal. Non-Bailable warrants shall be issued on the hospital directors. Legal Community must provide voluntary service/counsel to the kin of the deceased to sue the directors and the government as well.
At times we Indians take immense pride in proclaiming that "we are like this only" and over the years this "take it easy" approach has become an indistinguishable characteristic of our lives. It is only when horrific tragedies like AMRI hospital fire strike us do we realize how misplaced our beliefs and priorities are and how costly our slipshod approach can prove to people around us. But such hardened have we become due to our strict adherence to flouting norms and regulations as even tragedies of this scale fail to stir us into action. One good precedent that Mamata Banerjee has set is to cancel the license of the hospital with immediate effect. That should have some deterrent effect on other authorities. However at a more general level we need to shed our casual approach and start valuing lives. More than anything it requires a change of mindset on our part. As for the state authorities, they need to be stricter in ensuring compliance of norms by different agencies.
While I agree to what has been said in this article I have one complaint. Media in general have been excellent in covering an accident after it has happened but they often fail to bring in focus the factors that cause such accident in time. It may sound like expecting something from them which is not their responsibility but many preventable tragedies claim life because of lax implementation of set guidelines and flouting of norms which they can cover. As in this latest case, it is being alleged that inflammable materials were stored in the basement and notice was served to the AMRI authority in July to remove them but they did not listen resulting in the loss of 92 innocent lives. Now the news media that followed up the tragedy asking some tough questions to the hospital officials should face the toughest of them all. Why didn't they cover such blatant violation of rules? Why did they not bring it in our focus earlier. Perhaps that could've made the government wake up and take notice.
My comments are as follows: (1) Comparisons with the fire accidents abroad are simply not useful because as a society we still not accept that human life is invaluable and every effort must be made to save it. (2) We Indians are not sensitive enough to all accidental deaths; that is why so many of our youth die on roads, especially highways, without any corrective action being taken. Question is whether as a society we are ready to use our resources to create safer work places and public spaces. We have to strive for a world with fewer and fewer accidental deaths. (3) Creating fire safety awareness among all sections of the society is very important but it is not an easy task. Experience is that such fire accidents do occur in public places. (4).Organizations like National Safety Council should be strengthened; more efforts should be made to increase awareness among citizens about all types of accidents which happen due to human and other errors.
It seems as if our authorities are not learning the lessons from this kind of incidents. It's not the first time akin incidents are happening in India,as the editorial suggests. As the hype of the incident go down authorities starts sleeping. Another incident has to happen for them to get up. Stringent action should be taken against those who flout the rules.Then only we can curb these kind of instances.
We are notoriously slack in disaster managaement. The crucial component in disaster mangement is preparedness. How awfully we lack in this aspect is exemplified in the late turn out of our recue machinery. The fire fighting force or the policemen come to the site of an accident only after the damage has happened. Even a child knows this and makes mock phrases on them. That the fire engine could not reache the AMRI hospital precincts to douse the killer flames is a shame on the part of of those who sited the hospital. Ministers and other polititians express 'deep shock' at the occurrence of each tragedy that consumes ordinary lives, which are worth not even a pence these days. The hapless collectively moan the loss of lives. After the efflux of time, the tragedy is forgotten in toto. Even the inquiries are conducted for the name sake. They would not bring out the extenuating factors. And the report would be safe in the office shelves gathering dust- good heavens, not in garbage bin!
Dear sir,
Apologies upfront.
An almost mandatory editorial ruing safety standards and lack of timely action which could have prevented this accident. Edison famously said, genius is one percent inspiration, 99% perspiration. Safety is also the same, it is 99% culture, 1% tools, facilities and design. You may have all the top end design and faciltites in place if you do not have a safety culture in place it will not succeed. When you see parents with two or three kids weaving in and out of traffic with scarcely a concern for safety of "their" children they transport or jumping the red light. To expect such individuals to suddenly become conscientious workers at their work place to enforce safety norms is a bit of a stretch.
What needs to be done is to develop a safety culture. That cannot be done by the governemnt alone, they will only drive, citizens and media have equal participation in it. Are we not a democracy - government by the people, for the people and of the people?
We Indians are never going to take learning of any incident.But this incident was really shocking and am sure nothing will happen.The tears can be of anyone & we people of india are always prepared for it.
Nice content....
The first thing to look at is that Fire Advisory Council's
recommendations have nor been updated since 1998.This shows how active
and conscious we are about these issues.
As rightly mentioned by Editor,this is a indeed a preventable tragedy.
For that matter any tragedy / accident can also be prevented provided there is a will and seriousness to tackle the matter. India with poor population is prone to accidents of all sorts, be it at school, road, rail or even hospital. Lack of discipline, scant respect to rules and corruption and sabotage appears to be the root cause of these evil incidents. It is our duty to put a stop to such happenings in future by initiating stringent action on all anti-national elements without reckoning their status. Strict law enforcement everywhere is a must.
The complacent attitude we have must change. As long as it doesnt happen to us its OK! should go. I have seen how people take mock fire drills, they dont care if the fire warden is shouting his heart out, trying to evacuate them. They just sit back and say "Hey! relax its just a mock fire drill, lets think about it when there's a real fire". This complacency, lack of commitment is the lone killer in fire accidents, only 1 or 2 out of 50 know how to deal in such situations, for the rest its all panic leading to more confusion and problems. People must realise that lives once lost cant be bought back, we cant always stay ignorant at this simple fact. Time to change ourselves for the good.
Entry of big corporates in providing mediacl services have created such scenario.They construct the hospitals in such a way that the buildings and structures are usable as hotels also in case the venture fails.
Unfortunately our economic planners or the higher echelons in government are either ignorant or a party to such scenario.
Unless the issue be looked into from this angle in addition to other issues, problems shall continue in future.Rules will be violated by corporate bodies for their profit.
I like this .Give always this kind of content ..
Thanks with Regards
Anant Kumar
Kumbakonam school tragedy, Delhi Cinema hall tragedy, the Kalady boat
tragedy and all other accidents could have been avoided had the
safety installations were secure in its place. When five major fire
accidents happened in London no one had died. Why? They give utmost
priority to safety installations and care for the people. Here in
India money speaks and corruption is rampant.
A valuable editorial. Rememebr the Kumbakonam school children deaths
in this context. Also the Uphaar tragedy in Delhi. It is necessary for
the media to ensure that the Kolkatta fire case is not dealt with in
a leisurely fashion. Also care to be taken that vested interests do
not try to sidetrack the issue. It is seen from some articles
appearing in some sections of the media raising larger issues of
practices in public and privatge sector. There have ben accidents in
puhblic sector but these are not to be used to dilute the
prosectutrion efforts in the Kolkatta fire case.
My comments are as follows: (1) Comparisons with the fire accidents abroad are simply not useful because as a society we still not accept that human life is invaluable and every effort must be made to save it. (2) We Indians are not sensitive enough to all accidental deaths; that is why so many of our youth die on roads, especially highways, without any corrective action being taken. Question is whether as a society we are ready to use our resources to create safer work places and public spaces. We have to strive for a world with fewer and fewer accidental deaths. (3) Creating fire safety awareness among all sections of the society is very important but it is not an easy task. Experience is that such fire accidents do occur in public places. (4).Organizations like National Safety Council should be strengthened; more efforts should be made to increase awareness among citizens about all types of accidents which happen due to human and other errors.
I totally agree with your point , I think our goverment should learn from the outside country.so injury and death of a people reduces due to this types of accident
A good editorial at the right time. Thank you. We can only cry on what happened. If we are intelligent we should not allow another incident of the same to happen again. We cam immediately look to countries in our neighbourhood like Singapore, Japan and copy the building codes and safety features used there. It is just commonsence. What is preventing these intelligent (idiots) among us who can build hospitals but can't forsee the need for fire safety? It is in the attitude of people whre there is fault.
Medical practice in India needs an overhaul. This includes the nursing arm. Nursing needs to establish itself as a progressive wing hand in hand with the doctors. Basic patient care such as ergonomically changing position, safe lifting of weights are vital to the long term helath and safety of both the nurses and patients. Protocol based care is vital and is often seen as a threat by all parties concerned. I live and work in Australia. When I initaially came here I found the protocol based system strange but soon saw the benefits to patients and staff. Medical trainng needs to move away from repetitive lectures and focus on our clinical needs.
Great editorial! People in Kerala are also asking for a preventable tragedy from occurring by
building a new dam at Mullaperiyar, without harming the interests of Tamil Nadu. Like in all
similar cases in India, we play politics disregarding the lives of millions. At the same time
Ms.Jayalalitha feels that a brand new nuclear power station is dangerous for Tamil Nadu,
while she feels a 116 year old dam I'd very safe!
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