Angry India Mourners Protest Handling of Fire; Official Toll Is 538

Sorrow over the deaths of more than 500 people in a fire turned to anger Monday as 5,000 mourners, calling emergency facilities inadequate, blocked police from hauling away bodies for cremation.

The crowd threatened to tear down a wall of Dabwali’s Civil Hospital, which they said was not well enough equipped for this farming town, and burn the bodies where they lay inside.

Police kept the crowd under control, and the protesters dispersed after about five hours without carrying out their threats.

Authorities said Monday that the confirmed death toll in the Saturday fire was 538. About 250 more were injured when the flames swept through a year-end school party featuring performances by children. Doctors at the Dabwali hospital sent all but a handful of burn cases to neighboring towns.

“Is this a way to run a hospital?” said protester Suresh Singh. He said the hospital had only 10 beds for the town’s 50,000 people.

There was no immediate response from the hospital.

The blaze Saturday spread swiftly through the 30-by-30-foot, tent-like structure made of plywood and polyester, which had a corrugated metal roof and was surrounded by a 10-foot-high brick wall.

Many of the dead were mothers and their children, killed by smoke, flames or a stampede as the frightened audience tried to escape.