Thaindian News

Kolkata, Dec 12 (IANS) Radiotherapy instruments in the basement of the AMRI hospital, where a blaze killed 93 people, were “badly affected” in the fire but there was no fear of radiation, a West Bengal government team said Monday.

The state government also dispatched teams to review the fire safety facilities in the ill-fated hospital and others spread across the state.

A three-member team headed by Subir Ganguly, head of radiotherapy, Nilratan Sircar Medical College hospital, visited the Advanced Medicare & Research Institute (AMRI) hospital and inspected the basement, from where the fire started Friday, as several radiotherapy machines were kept there.

“We inspected the radiotherapy department and all the medical equipment there. There is no fear of radiation from the machines, though they have been badly affected by fire,” Ganguly told IANS.

The team will submit its report to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Personnel from National Disaster Resistance Force had visited the hospital hours after the fire, and said there was no immediate radiation danger. Later, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre experts had said the same.

The newly constituted five member probe team headed by D.P. Biswas, the additional director-general (ADG) of the fire department visited the hospital inspecting the fire safety measures at its various facilities including the blood bank and the pharmacy located inside.

The team later visited several other hospitals and is slated to inspect shopping malls in the city Tuesday.

A team of forensic experts led by Dhurjyoti Sengupta, Director, State Forensic Science Laboratory which earlier had been unable to collect evidence due to the water collected in the basement where the fire broke out, visited it again to probe the reason behind the fire.

“We inspected the whole building from bottom to the top for several hours and collected samples. After making minute examinations and observations, we are now closer to knowing the reasons for the mishaps. We will be making further investigations,” said Sengupta.

The high-level investigating team headed by Joint Commissioner of Police Damayanti Sen also visited the premises.

Meanwhile, the Siliguri municipality under Darjeeling district Monday razed the basement of a private nursing home in Siliguri for violating fire safety norms.

“The municipality has been warning the hospital since long to remove the hazardous materials stocked in the basement. The basement too was illegally constructed so we pulled it down,” said D.P. Saha, a member of the municipality.

Minister of Correctional Administration Shankar Chakrabarty visited a Balurghat Hospital in South Dinajpur district which he said had inadequate fire safety measures and ordered the authorities to get the proper facilities within a week.

However the acting superintendent of the hospital Brijesh Saha claimed the safety measures were adequate. “We will comply with the minister’s order but our safety measures are up-to-date.”

In the worst fire tragedy in any hospital in India, 93 patients and staffers were killed when a blaze started in the basement of the AMRI annexe building early Friday and quickly spread, trapping hundreds of people.