India News | Fire Services Denies Allegations of Help Not
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The district fire authorities of Ernakulam on Monday refuted the allegations levelled by an actor that the fire and rescue services did not respond to calls when Malayalam screenwriter John Paul Puthussery, who died two days ago, had fallen off his bed at his residence in January this year.
Kochi, Apr 25 (PTI) The district fire authorities of Ernakulam on Monday refuted the allegations levelled by an actor that the fire and rescue services did not respond to calls when Malayalam screenwriter John Paul Puthussery, who died two days ago, had fallen off his bed at his residence in January this year.
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The District Fire Officer said preliminary investigations have not found any such call having been made.
The officer, speaking to reporters, said the fire services go above and beyond their call of duty to help people as well as animals, and they never say they would show up only after some accident or disaster.
"For us, all lives are the same. In this case, since he (Puthussery) was a celebrity, there was no way that fire rescue would not have responded. The incident took place on January 21. According to the people on duty and the records, no such call was received.
"Moreover, fire rescue will never reply that there has to be an accident first. That will never be said and should not be said. We are carrying out a detailed enquiry. If there has been any lapse on the part of fire services, action will be taken," he said.
He further said it appears that no one called the 101 number exclusively for fire and rescue services.
The officer was responding to allegations by actor Kailash, on a news channel, that when the screenwriter fell off his bed, ambulance and fire services did not come.
The actor claimed the ambulance service providers he had called had told him they would come only if the person has to be shifted to a hospital and the fire services said they can come only if it is a serious incident or accident.
Thereafter, he had called the police who came and after assessing the situation returned with an ambulance and thereafter, using a stretcher, the screenwriter was put back in bed.
However, all this took 2-3 hours and all this time Puthussery had to lie on the cold tiled floor, the actor claimed.
He said he was not blaming anyone and was only drawing attention to this incident so that the authorities take steps to prevent something like this in future.
Even Puthussery had wanted this issue to be highlighted, the actor added.
Similar sentiments were echoed by producer Jolly Joseph who claimed while speaking to a news channel that Puthussery had intended to write about this ordeal once he got better.
Puthussery, who had penned the screenplay for around 100 films, died at a hospital here on Saturday. He was 72 and was under treatment for various diseases for sometime.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)