A six-month old baby was among the eight victims, who lost their lives in the fire which engulfed Mumbai’s Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Kamgar Hospital on Monday, 17 December.
Although a 147 people were rescued from the hospital, due to the combined efforts of the hospital staff, the firefighting forces, the police and the locals, over a 100 people were injured and some, are still seeking treatment.
The level three fire broke out around 4:20pm from the fourth floor of the hospital. It was later raised to level four at 4:54pm, fire department officials told Hindustan Times.
While the exact cause of the blaze was being ascertained, the preliminary report said that building material, kept at the ground floor of the hospital for renovation work caught fire, PTI, quoting a statement made by the Ministry, said.
Speaking to PTI, several eye-witnesses narrated their account. Santosh Kadam, a patient, said that he was on his way to the ground floor, from the fourth floor of the building, when the fire broke out.
“Suddenly, nurses and other staffers started shouting and told us to vacate the building since a fire had broken out. I along with my other relatives came down safely,” he told PTI.
Another patient, Girish Patel, told PTI:
“I saw smoke emanating from the third and fourth floors. There was thick layer of smoke. People panicked and started running helter-skelter before hospital staff came and advised us to vacate the floor quietly.”
A male nurse, named Kailash Dhayal, who had been working at the hospital for the past 10 years, told The Times of India that his shift had been over, when the fire reportedly broke out.
“My duty had just finished before 4pm. Since I live in the staff quarters behind the hospital, I came running back hearing screams,” he said.
A local, Sudhir Jadhav, who thankfully knew the hospital's layout, used the torch on his mobile phone to fight through the flames to locate people at risk and carried them to safety on his shoulders, DNA reported.
“There was complete darkness. The place was full of smoke. It was difficult to see things at a metre’s distance. We opened every door to check if anyone was trapped.”Jadhav told DNA
A former tailor and MIDC resident, 60-year-old Nivruti Kamble, was being treated at the hospital for jaundice. When the fire broke out, he was being visited by his family, Hindustan Times reported.
“Two of his daughters took the rope to escape and suffered injuries to their arms,” Shobha Kamble, Nivruti’s sister, who had been outside the ward at the time, told the newspaper.
On news of the fire breaking out, the fire department had sent 10 fire engines, six water tankers, three turn table ladders and about 16 ambulances, under the supervision of senior officers, to the site, in an attempt to rescue the people who were stuck inside the building, Hindustan Times reported.
The fire was doused by about 7:20 pm.
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