Kolkata Christians cancel festivities after hospital blaze deaths

(December 12, 2011) Christians in in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata have cancelled Christmas festivities in order to pray for victims of Friday’s deadly hospital blaze which killed 92 people. Father Dominic Gomes, public relations officer of Calcutta archdiocese said they had planned a week of Christmas festivities beginning on Monday, the first such program to be held in the city, to which West Bengal state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had been invited to inaugurate along with Coadjutor Archbishop Thomas D’Souza of Calcutta. He said they have decided to forgo the festivities in memory of the fire victims. The archdiocese has also cancelled the lighting of a huge Christmas tree at the event. Instead, organizers planned an inter-faith prayer meet in a park later on Monday. The death toll from the fire at the posh Advanced Medical Research Centre, AMRI, rose to 92 when another patient died on Sunday. The dead included two nurses, one a Catholic, who died while trying to rescue patients. Other staff members reportedly fled after the fire broke out. During Sunday Mass yesterday, churches in Kolkata prayed for the victims. Several Catholic priests had also attended an interfaith prayer meeting to remember the victims the previous day.