AMRI Hospital fire: Bengal minister loses close acquaintance

Octogenarian Raj Kumar Biswas was the first person to inform West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim about the massive fire from his bed in AMRI hospital but could not save himself as the thick, acrid smoke suffocated him to death today.

By PTI | Updated: Dec 09, 2011, 10.08 PM IST

KOLKATA: Octogenarian Raj Kumar Biswas was the first person to inform West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim about the massive fire from his bed in AMRI hospital but could not save himself as the thick, acrid smoke suffocated him to death today.

The urban development minister said he lost the close acquaintance, who was like his uncle.

"He made frantic calls to my residence from his mobile phone around 4.30 am from the hospital bed to do something for him, but by then the smoke had already enveloped the entire second floor," Hakim, who went to the hospital in the early hours, told PTI.

Hakim, who supervised the rescue operation with the help of the local people of Panchanan Tala, went to the bed by five am only to find a lifeless body of 82-year-old Biswas.

"I came to know from him first about the fire," he said.

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