We live in a flat overlooking the AMRI Hospital Annex I building in Kolkata where 90 people died on December 9. When the sound of shouting woke us up at 4.15 a m, all that we could see from the north were a few wisps of smoke from the west of the building. No fire was visible from our side.
A handful of Fire Brigade men were soon on the scene with flimsy ladders that could not be extended to the fourth floor. The bulk of the rescue efforts were by local young men who were breaking the windows with whatever metallic parts were at hand. Even at 7 a m, there was very little smoke on the north side. After some time, a heavier ladder was brought and the earlier flimsy ladder tied to it to reach the fourth floor and 15 or 20 AMRI employees – mainly male and female nurses – and three patients were rescued from this side in a very clumsy manner. Hydraulic ladders came so late that they could be used to rescue only the last few people.
When the scenes inside the building were shown on TV later in the day, I realised that the fire had been limited to the basement right from the beginning and that all that had reached the upper floors was smoke. If only someone inside the building had had the sense to go around breaking all the windows as soon as the smell of smoke was noticed, there may have been no deaths. I wonder if this simple course of action can be taught repeatedly as a routine fire safety measure in all centrally air-conditioned buildings until it becomes an ingrained automatic practice all over India.
Alok Sarkar, Kolkata
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