The deadly fire at a Kolkata hotel that claimed nine lives early today has exposed serious safety lapses at the property, with authorities finding that the building lacked proper fire safety measures and had narrow passages that may have hampered evacuation efforts.
Police said nine people, including a child and two women, died in the incident, while around 60 others were rescued from the building.
There comes the question of severe lapses in the ventilation facilities,” said a state fire services department official present at the spot, news agency IANS reported. The residents could not figure out which way to get out,” the officer said, IANS reported. “When the nine bodies were brought out of the hotel building premises, there were not many burn injuries on their bodies. But the entire complex was covered in thick black smoke, thereby causing severe breathing problems. In addition, the entry and exit spaces in the building were extremely narrow. It was later found that multiple hotels and guest houses were functioning from different floors. “Each floor of the building housed a hotel or a guest house, with extremely small rooms and narrow passages. The fire first broke out in a hotel on the third floor of that building. The intensity of the fire was not high. But the smoke gradually increased. The entire hotel building was covered in smoke. Nine people, including six men, two women and a child, were recovered from the premises. One of the victims has been identified as a resident of Jharkhand who was staying at the hotel.
The fire broke out around 2:00 am at Hotel Sikha Inn in Florence Mansion, an old G+4 building on Mirza Ghalib Street under the New Market police station area. Police said nine people, including a child and two women, died in the incident, while around 60 others were rescued from the building.
In fact, as told to us by other residents of the hotel, who have been safely evacuated, the intensity of the fire within the building was not high. “With the entire hotel building premises being covered with thick and black smoke, the residents already suffering from breathing problems were even more confused about which path they would approach to come out of the hotel building,” said the state fire services department official, IANS reported. A Kolkata Police officer said investigators initially believed only one hotel operated from the building.
