Omar orders fire safety audit of Kashmir hospitals

Coming to know of the fire in the morning, Omar Abdullah said that he had learnt lessons from AMRI tragedy and immediately issued instructions to the home department for the fire safety audit.

In a quick reaction to the fire in Kolkata's AMRI hospital that left at least 84 dead, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday ordered a fire safety audit of all major hospitals in the state.

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Coming to know of the fire in the morning, Omar Abdullah said that he had learnt lessons from AMRI tragedy and immediately issued instructions to the home department for the fire safety audit.

He made the announcement on micro-blogging site Twitter, where he posted: "Have instructed the Home Deptt to order a fire safety audit of all our major hospitals. Lesson learnt from #AMRI tragedy."

Meanwhile, the chief minister also made a scathing comment about the hospital functionaries.

"Of course the doctors & staff fled, what else would explain the ratio of staff & patient casualties - 70:3," he said in another tweet

He also reflected what it revealed the state of affairs of the country. "Every time I see incidents like #AMRI I'm convinced we really are a 3rd world nation with delusions of greatness."

Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani asked the fire and emergency services to complete the exercise and submit a detailed report by Dec 20.

He also asked the administration of all government and associated hospitals and nursing homes to equip their health institutions with the required firefighting equipment to avoid any untoward incident.