Calcutta, Dec. 10: A certificate that allowed AMRI Hospitals to run in spite of glaring holes in its fire-fighting capability has confirmed a worst-kept secret: the malleable fire department is the biggest disincentive to installing fail-proof safety features.

The fire and emergency department of the Bengal government had full information about the lack of preparedness of AMRI to fight fire but that did not prevent it from renewing a no-objection certificate on August 29.

The official who usually issues such certificates told The Telegraph he was in hospital with a fracture then. The stand-in official could not be contacted.

Instead of sealing the hospital for not following the safety rules, the fire and emergency department allowed it to function and gave three months to fix the problems.

“This is the norm in most cases. The malpractice has come out in the open because of the tragedy,” said a senior official in the department, who did not wish to be named because of the sensitive nature of the disclosure. “The 90-day grace period has cost 92 lives,” the official added. (The toll rose to 92 today.)

According to the West Bengal Fire Services Act, renewal of the NOC every year is mandatory for any establishment that requires fire clearance, and the fire and emergency department issues it. A team from the department visits the premises before renewing the NOC for another year.

A four-member team had visited AMRI Hospitals in Dhakuria in the third week of August and checked the facility. An inspector who was part of the team said that they had realised that the two-tier basement — described as parking lot in the building plan — at the hospital could trigger a fire hazard.

“We did not find a single car parked there. A part of tier-1 resembled office space with cubicles and shelves. Heaps of electric cables, cartons, discarded stretchers with mattresses, wooden chairs, portable LPG cylinders and numerous jerrycans filled with some liquid were kept in tier-1. Tier 2 was being used as a diagnostic centre,” the official recounted.

The team also noticed the following shortcomings in the fire-fighting system:

Most water sprinklers and fire alarms in the basement as well as inside the hospital were dysfunctional

No personnel trained to fight fire and smoke were seen in the basement

The second gate of the basement was locked (it should have been kept open)

Tier-2 had only one exit which would have trapped people in case of an emergency like Friday’s fire

Fire extinguishers were placed behind other materials.

“The hospital authorities were informed about the shortcomings and were given three months to set the house in order,” said the inspector.

Had the officials gone by the rulebook, these violations were enough to slap a closure notice under Section 35 of the West Bengal Fire Services Act and shift the patients to another facility in 24 hours.

They had invoked the section in April 2008 and cancelled the NOC to Ruby Hospital after a check revealed that the sprinklers, fire alarms and water hydrants were defunct. “The hospital was given a fresh NOC after two months when it put all the fire safety norms in place,” a fire department official said.

Debopriyo Biswas, the additional director-general of the department, is the signing authority on no-objection certificates. Asked why his department flouted the norms, Biswas said: “I was in hospital when AMRI’s NOC was renewed as I was nursing a fracture in my leg.”

Sources in the department revealed that Gopal Bhattacharjee, the director of fire services, was in charge in Biswas’s absence. Calls to Bhattacharjee and his deputy Deepak Sarkar went unanswered.

Records with the department revealed that the NOC was issued on August 29, which means firemen should have run a check on the facility in the last week of November but they didn’t.

Although AMRI submitted an affidavit saying the norms would be followed, Friday’s fire revealed that the authorities did not do the needful.

India’s National Building Code provides guidelines that can protect lives but they need to be enforced. “The question we should be asking is whether building and fire authorities always insist that each and every minute detail in the regulations are followed,” said Avinash Shirode, a civil engineer who was a member of the panel that revised the code in 2005. ( )

Several commercial establishments this newspaper spoke to said fire department officials hardly visited their properties. “In fact, loud hints are dropped that there is no need to spend so much money on fire-fighting equipment. Instead, you are encouraged to pay up and get the certificate. Both sides gain: you pay less and they make good money on the side,” said the owner of a medium enterprise.

Engineer Shirode referred to another problem that requires a mindset change. “When some enthusiastic officials try doing that, it is often seen as harassment.”

An FIR filed by Sarkar detailed how the use of the AMRI upper basement, built for parking cars, was changed without permission from the department concerned, the CMC in this case. The FIR said the vertical opening at each floor level was “not sealed with fire stop” that led to the smoke billowing from the basement to the upper floors.