United Hospital sued by fatal fire victim’s family

The United Hospital in Dhaka is facing culpable homicide charges brought by the family of one of the five patients who died in a fire incident.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 June 2020, 07:25 PM
Updated : 3 June 2020, 07:25 PM

Ronald Micky Gomez, son-in-law of 74-year-old fire victim Vernon Anthony Paul, started a case against officials, employees and health workers of the hospital with Gulshan police on Wednesday.

The plaintiff did not name suspects, but brought charges against the chairman, managing director, chief executive, directors, doctors and nurses on duty at the isolation unit, and the security personnel, police Inspector Aminul Islam said.   

Hasan Mahmood Raja is chairman of the hospital while Faridur Rahman Khan is its managing director.

The accused will face up to three years in jail if the charges are proved.

Besides Anthony, the victims of the fatal fire were Md Mahbub, 50, Md Monir Hossain, 75, Khodaja Begum, 70, and Riaz Ul Alam, 45.

Three of them were COVID-19 patients while the two others had symptoms.

The fire on the night of May 27 burnt down the tent-like coronavirus unit of the hospital.

The authorities are yet to find out the origin of the fire. A witness said he saw sparks in an air conditioner just before the fire started.

It quickly raged through the structure as the materials used for the construction and the hand sanitizer kept inside were highly flammable, the police said.

The Fire Service and Civil Defence investigators said there were no firefighters, fire drill or a fire team to deal with the disaster while only three of the 11 fire extinguishers at the wing had not expired.

Information Minister Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said the United Hospital will be held accountable for the deaths of the patients in the fire.