At least 40 people died in a fire early Friday at a private hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata, officials said, according to dpa. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation after the fire broke out in a basement storage area, West Bengal Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim said. Many of the victims were in the critical patients and orthopaedic wards on the second and third floors of the four-storeyed AMRI hospital, relatives said. Most of them were immobile and choked by the smoke, the NDTV news channel quoted relatives as saying. The fire was put out and firefighters rescued most of the patients trapped in the hospital, which is on a narrow road in the Dhakuria area of south Kolkata, police said. Fire Department personnel used hydraulic ladders to break open windows to let out the smoke and rescue patients. "There was no fire alarm," a sobbing woman said on NDTV. "The hospital staff disappeared. My mother would have come out of hospital in a few days. ... Now she is dead." Angry patients and their relatives protesting outside the hospital were baton-charged by police, Times Now television reported. They said hospital authorities were lax in taking action and the firefighters arrived two hours after the fire broke out. At least 85 patients were rescued and admitted to other hospitals, the Times of India newspaper reported on its website. At least 160 patients were in the hospital when the fire broke out, the report said. The Fire Department lodged a complaint with the police against the Advanced Medicare and Research Institute, more commonly referred to as the AMRI hospital, for violating safety norms. The cause of the fire was not clear. Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, whose capital is Kolkata, ordered an investigation. The fire was the second major blaze at the AMRI hospital. The first took place in December 2008, but there were no casualties. Fires are not uncommon in Kolkata buildings, many of which have faulty electrical wiring. At least 40 people died in a fire in a historic building in the city in March 2010.
