Qatar News Agency
NEW DELHI — About 81 persons, 78 patients and three staffers, died on Friday in India’s worst ever hospital mishap ever in the eastern state of Kolkata (Calcutta).
Most of the victims died due to fumes in the closed glass facade building, set up only six years ago as a super multi-specialty hospital. Two leading industrialists, who owned the hospital, were arrested for mismanagement.
An inquiry is on but the fire broke out in the building basement at 3.30 am, and exploded into fireballs due to the various combustible materials, oxygen cylinders and chemicals packed together in storage. Resulting fumes suffocated the patients.
There was anger all over at both the inept storage of toxic and inflammable equipment and the Fire Brigade personnel. There were around 160 patients in the hospital, 45 of them in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Some of the surviving patients have been shifted to another block of the hospital and some elsewhere.
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