Mumbai hospital fire claims 1 more life, 2 held

Mumbai: The death toll in the Mumbai hospital fire rose to nine on Wednesday with a 65-year-old woman succumbing to her injuries, a civic official said. Two persons were on Wednesday arrested that claimed the lives of nine people and left 175 injured.

“Those arrested were identified as Nilesh Mehta and Nitin Kamble. They are supervisors of a construction company, which was overseeing the construction of a new building of the hospital,” a senior official said.

Shila Murvekar died at Seven Hills hospital this afternoon and with this the death toll reached nine, a Brihanmumbai Munici-pal Corporation  official said.

The fire broke out in the government-run ESIC Kamgar Hospital at Marol in suburban Andheri on Monday, killing six people. The death toll rose to eight on Tuesday with two persons dying in different hospitals.

The 325-bed hospital did not have the Occupation Certificate from fire department, a mandatory certification needed for such institutes to function.

Nearly 375 people, including patients and visitors, were in the five-floor hospital when the fire broke out, an official said. The blaze appeared to have erupted after a short-circuit near the rubber rolls stored on the ground floor, he said.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday ordered a probe and the union labour ministry had announced compensation for the victims.

The injured are seeking treatment at Civic-run Co-oper Hospital, B. Thacker-ay Hospital (Trauma), Jog-eshwari, Holy Spirit Hos-pital, Andheri (East), Hira-nandani Hospital, Powai, Sidhharth Hospital, Goregaon, Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali and Seven Hills Hospital, Andheri (East).