At least six people died and 129 others were injured in a fire that broke out Monday, 17th December, in a hospital in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital, police said. It was a horrific spectacle which saw people leap out of the building to escape the 
blaze.
The fire in the five-storey government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital in the suburban Andheri area was believed to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit, said police officer A.P. Lokhand.
This is a government-owned hospital meant for government servants and the irony is stark. The hospital did not have a NOC from the fire department or an Occupation Certificate. The last fire NOC was granted in 2009 and further NOC was not given to this hospital because of discrepancies. The fire alarms did not go off, reports Timesnownews.com. There was not enough fire safety equipment in the hospital, the report goes on to say. “There were no clear exits in the hospital. Five floors of the hospital were being evacuated with zero safety”, said the reporter on live TV.
This was a 5-storey hospital with ONE EXIT only. Windows were shut and the smoke did not have escape avenues leave alone the people, according to a local who was trying to help out. The saviors broke all the windows including in the ICU. The bystanders said that had there been a back exit it would have been much easier but without that, the task for the fire brigade as well as common helpers was made much more difficult.
It is a sad reality that lack of awareness on basic safety issues and casual negligence of essentials has claimed so many lives but no lessons are learnt. Exigency solutions, paraphernalia and training should be non-negotiable in closed spaces especially hospitals and infirmaries where the inmates themselves may be physically or mentally challenged. However an accident like this recent one fills us with that déjà vu feeling that we are almost used to.
Installation of emergency lights, photoluminescent signages to guide people in dark conditions to see and move to the nearest exit, fire extinguishers, first aid kits and multiple exit points cleared of clutter to facilitate quick exit when seconds separate life and death. These are not luxuries but essentials.
The fire in the ESIC kamgar hospital is no isolated case. Here too, a close look shows gross negligence and contempt of exigency protocols. Fire chief P.S. Rahangdale said the smoke engulfed the entire building and rescuers were running helter skelter searching all of the floors to see if any patients, hospital staff or visitors were still trapped there.
A report succinctly put it, “A Times of India newspaper report said 49 patients were evacuated and shifted to nearby hospitals. Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents. In December last year, a late-night fire in a Mumbai restaurant killed 14 people.”
ESIC HOSPITAL FIRE CASUALTIES RISE TO 8 BY THE NEXT DAY
The death toll in the major hospital fire incident in Mumbai which claimed six on the day, rose up to eight by Tuesday morning. Over 145 persons, mostly patients and visitors, were rescued from the scene and suffered injuries.
A massive fire had ravaged state-run Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Kamgar Hospital at Marol in Andheri East around 4 pm on Monday, 17th December. It took more than three hours to extinguish the flames. The fire was first noticed near the operation theatre of the five-storey hospital. "The building is a ground plus five-floor structure and the blaze erupted on the fourth floor," the official said.
Most of the injured, who had been admitted to various hospitals in the suburbs, were patients and staffers, informed an official of the Disaster Management Cell of the Brihan mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Over 160 patients were admitted in the hospital at the time of the fire. The blaze quickly spread horizontally and vertically, trapping around 155 people.
Panicking, some patients and staffers did not wait for help and jumped out of the fourth-floor window. They suffered fractures, and at least one was killed. The rescue team rushed to the spot with 12 fire tenders and 15 water tankers.
A majority of those rescued had suffered burn wounds or suffocation symptoms. They were admitted to government and private hospitals in Andheri, Vile Parle, Jogeshwari and Goregaon. Nineteen were taken to Cooper Hospital, Juhu, 39 to Prabodhankar Thackeray Trauma Hospital, Jogeshwari East, 40 to Holi Spirit Hospital, Andheri East, 44 to Seven Hills Hospital, Andheri East, three to Hiranandani Hospital, Powai, and two to Sidhharth Hospital, Goregaon.
Preliminary reports suggested that the fire might have erupted due to a short-circuit in the hospital building with a glass facade, reported IANS.
Thick clouds of smoke emanating from the fire-hit hospital reduced the visibility in the area and leading to peak-hour traffic jams.
Mumbai has witnessed over a dozen major fires in residential and commercial premises claiming over 50 lives and injuring many more besides damage to properties.
