On Tuesday morning, a fire started on the second story of Anandalok Hospital in Kolkata. Because of it, patients were quickly moved out and the emergency services went to the hospital fully. The fire and a lot of smoke meant staff had to get patients to another building close by while the firefighters worked on the fire. The authorities have said no one was injured.
Fire and immediate response
Firefighters arrived very quickly after the first calls and used multiple trucks to put the fire out. The fire seems to have started near an operating room and the main idea is that a problem with the wiring in the air conditioning unit caused it.
The hospital announced on social media that firefighters had been swift to arrive and began to rescue anyone in the hospital. Firefighters broke windows to allow the smoke to escape and used ladders to reach the second floor. Police made sure the area around the hospital was safe.
Evacuation and patient safety measures
Hospital staff and the emergency teams moved roughly seventy patients who were in the hospital. Many were taken to another Anandalol building in DL Block. Some were carried or transported by ambulance, and were still connected to their drips and machines that monitored their condition.
The lifts were stopped as a safety measure, and staff focused on patients in the operating room or close to it. After carefully checking each floor, officials confirmed that everyone was present and that no patients had been injured.
Eyewitness accounts and on-scene conditions
People who saw the fire said they saw flames coming from a window on the second floor and thick, dark smoke going into the hallways and onto the street. A lot of family members collected nearby, feeling worried and waiting for information or news from the hospital staff and the people responding to the fire.
Some of the patients who had been evacuated sat on the sidewalk with blankets and their IV stands, while the fire crews got the fire under control. Hospital staff used megaphones to give relatives information and to organize getting patients to other hospitals so they could continue getting care.
Context and safety concerns raised
This event has brought concerns about fire safety in hospitals up again, especially in areas where operations happen like operating rooms. The officials said that the wiring fault they suspect will be part of a formal investigation to find the cause and any areas where safety wasn’t as good as it should be.
A different fire happened at a nursing home in the city not long ago, and this makes people even more insistent that hospitals follow safety rules carefully and have their electrical systems checked regularly. Health authorities have asked hospitals to look at their plans for getting people out in an emergency and make sure their fire equipment is ready for use.
Current status and next steps
Firefighters continued to completely put out all the remaining burning parts of the fire and remove the smoke from the building. The police and emergency services said they would go through every floor carefully to make sure nobody is left inside and to make the area secure for the people investigating.
The people who run the hospital said any operations that were planned have been delayed and that all of the patients who were affected are being looked at in the other hospital. The investigators will look at the wiring, the equipment and the maintenance records to understand what happened and suggest what needs to be done to fix it.
Officials have stressed that thankfully no one was killed or hurt in the fire, but it shows that hospitals have to constantly be careful about safety. Both the families and the hospital staff are now concentrating on getting better and making sure this does not happen again.
