A day after fire, normalcy returns to Calcutta Medical College

Services resumed at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital here on Thursday, a day after a medical store inside the state-run hospital was gutted in fire, leading to emergency evacuation of 250 patients.

"The daily operations at the hospital are normal. All the patients who were evacuated after Wednesday's fire have been readmitted to the respective departments. All departments in the fire affected building are functioning to their full capacity," Hospital Superintendent Asish Kumar Basu told IANS.

"There is no bar on admitting patients in any of the departments. New patients are being admitted in normal procedure according to the availability of beds," he said.

The blaze broke out at the hospital on Wednesday morning, creating panic among several patients and their relatives as thick smoke was seen billowing out of the old hospital building that has the Cardiology, Hematology and Endocrinology departments.

Fire fighters and personnel of the state Disaster Management Department managed to bring the blaze under control after nearly five hours even as chaos and uncertainty prevailed over situation of critically ill patients.

Many of them had to be carried out by the hospital staff as adequate number of stretchers were not available.

Medicine stocks worth Rs 5 crore were destroyed in the fire, the person in charge of the gutted medical store had claimed.

A senior Fire Department official had said the fire started at a place where gas cylinders, gauzes and bandages are stored but insisted that the reason of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

--IANS

mgr/nir