Fire at Indian hospital kills 89 as staff flees

KOLKATA, India (AP) — Fleeing medical staff abandoned patients to a fire that killed 89 people today as black smoke poured through the seven-story hospital in this city in eastern India, officials said. Six administrators were arrested.

Dwellers of a nearby slum who first noticed the smoke and fire rushed to the AMRI Hospital to raise the alarm, but security guards kept them back, saying it was only a small blaze, witnesses said.

It took firefighters in the city formerly known as Calcutta more than an hour to respond, said Pradeep Sarkar, a witness whose uncle was hospitalized but was among those safely evacuated from the private facility. Some of the slum dwellers helped with the rescue.

The neighborhood's narrow streets apparently made it difficult for fire trucks to get close to the building and to bring in big hydraulic ladders. Eventually, they smashed through a main gate to make way for the ladders.

Six hospital directors surrendered to police and were charged with culpable homicide, according to police who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.