No lessons learnt from AMRI disaster

Fire dept officials find inverter batteries stacked in the basement of Ruby Hall Clinic's Kamalnayan Bajaj building; chief security officer claims it is not risky

No lessons learnt from AMRI disaster

Fire dept officials find inverter batteries stacked in the basement of Ruby Hall Clinic's Kamalnayan Bajaj building; chief security officer claims it is not risky

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It seems that Ruby Hall Clinic, one of the most reputed hospitals in the city, hasn't learnt any lesson from the tragedy that claimed 93 lives at the Advanced Medicare and Research Institute (AMRI) in Kolkata last week.

The basement of the hospital's Kamalnayan Bajaj building had caught fire a few years ago. The smoke emanating from the area had reached till the second floor of the building

Fire department has found loopholes in its fire fighting security systems of the hospital. Also, it's astounding to learn that the authorities haveu00a0 stacked inverter batteries in the basement of the hospital's Kamalnayan Bajaju00a0 building.

The basement of the building had caught fire a few years ago. The smoke emanating from the area had reached till the second floor of the building.
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Station Officer Vijay Bhilare said, "We had advised the hospital to remove the batteries from the basement and keep it in a away that's away from the hospital building. Although they have stored the batteries in a cabin, it is located the basement itself."

Officials of the fire department also found that the fire fighting system at the hospital's old building has some loopholes. "I have suggested the hospital authorities to improve the system at all the three floors of the building," Bhilare said.

When questioned about the lacunae in the fire safety measures adopted by the hospital, Colonel Satish Kumar Bhatia, chief security officer of Ruby Hall Clinic, said, "I have already spoken to the management about removing the inverter batteries from the basement."

When reminded about the mishap caused because of the inverter batteries a few years ago, he claimed, "We have kept the batteries in the corner of the basement, which is not at all risky."

The department has been conducting fire drills in city hospitals and schools since Tuesday and hence, the Ruby Hall Clinic was inspected on yesterday. A similar inspection was done in Jahangir Hospital as well, and the fire department has given clean cheat to the hospital.

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