A fire erupted at Sealdah’s ESI Hospital early Friday morning, reportedly originating from an air-conditioning unit. The incident led to the evacuation of 91 patients from the 254-bed facility. Tragically, a terminally ill colon cancer patient, Uttam Barman, died during the evacuation. It remains unclear whether his death was directly related to the fire; some doctors speculated he may have suffered a panic attack.
The blaze was detected shortly after 5 AM, and it took approximately two and a half hours for a dozen fire tenders to extinguish the flames. An additional seven hours were required for cooling efforts before electricity could be safely restored.
Family members of Barman alleged that he was asphyxiated during the incident. However, hospital authorities and police stated they would wait for the postmortem report to determine whether the cause of death was related to his cancer or toxic smoke inhalation.
Hospital superintendent Aditi Das revealed that the company contracted in 2022 to install and maintain the fire extinguishing system has yet to complete the work, raising serious safety concerns.
