SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 1: The family members who lost their kin in the Ashirwad apartment devastating fire, were seen struggling hard at Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College at night on Tuesday and in the morning of Wednesday to identify the bodies as most of them were burnt beyond recognition.
The bodies were kept in the deep freezer of SNMMCH at night for post-mortem after taking pictures of the victims. SNMMCH authorities said that since some bodies were charred beyond recognition, the family members and relatives were trying hard to identify them.
Prof (Dr) UK Ojha, head of the department of medicine, who was monitoring the bodies at the emergency of SNMMCH at night, said that a family member claimed a body on basis of her Sari. “The picture print of bodies is in black and white. We are going to make them coloured. That may help in recognition”, he said.
In the fire tragedy, 14 people including 10 women, three children and a man died when a major fire broke out on the third floor of an Ashirwad Tower apartment in Joraphatak Road under Bank More police station on Tuesday evening.
Deputy commissioner (DC) Sandip Singh after the completion of the rescue operation late at night on Tuesday said that 14 people died and the same number of residents were injured in the fire tragedy.
However, on Wednesday morning the authority of Patliputra Nursing Homes, where the injured were admitted, said that a total of 18 persons were admitted at his hospital and most of them were released after first aid. One person is still under treatment but out of danger.
“Since most of them had faced normal suffocation problems only, they were released at night,” said Dr Nirmal Drolia, of the nursing home, whose hospital is near the Ashirwad Tower and had supplied water in the rescue operation.
Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner has directed the medical college authority to conduct post-mortems of bodies under a Medical Board.
