KOLKATA, Apr 30: Brazen disregard for mandatory firefighting measures in certain commercial establishments and persisting lacunae from authorities concerned in maintaining the necessary safety checks seems to have led to the latest fire tragedy in Kolkata which claimed the lives of 14 unsuspecting people, a section of officials felt.
What started as a minor blaze inside a virtual tinderbox of a property “operating without even basic firefighting provisions” quickly turned the six-storey low-budget Rituraj Hotel in Mechhua Falpatti area of Burrabazar in central Kolkata into a furnace of smoke, panic and death on Tuesday evening.
None of the victims, though, was charred by the flames.
While Manoj Paswan, an employee of the hotel, succumbed to his injuries following his attempt to escape the blaze by jumping off the second-floor cornice, the remaining 13 bodies, recovered from the site on Wednesday morning, showed signs of death by asphyxiation, police said.
According to the list released by the Kolkata Police, nine out of the 14 victims could be identified till Wednesday evening.
The deceased, mostly occupants of the hotel rooms, hailed from diverse locations of Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand.
A male toddler aged 3 years and a female child aged about 10 years, both hailing from Tamil Nadu, were also among the list of victims, police confirmed.
The incident triggered memories of the March 2010 Stephen Court fire on Park Street, which left 43 dead, and the December 2011 AMRI Hospital blaze that claimed over 90 lives.
Burrabazar, the city’s thickly populated wholesale trading hub, has also been witness to numerous fire incidents in the recent past owing to its old, unplanned and illegal constructions.
Expressing anguish over the tragedy, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee separately announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each for the injured from their respective relief funds.
Following the incident, Kolkata Police constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the cause of the fire.
According to police, the hotel was hosting 88 guests in its 42 occupied rooms when fire broke out at one of the east-side rooms on the first floor around 8 pm on Tuesday.
While the firefighters focused on containing the flames from spreading to the upper floors, thick black fumes of gases quickly engulfed the building, converting the premises into a virtual gas chamber.
Ten fire tenders pressed into service brought the blaze under control in the early hours of Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses described chilling scenes of horror flames leaping from windows, guests screaming for help, and some people jumping off windows to escape the blaze.
“I saw a little boy shouting for his mother from the third-floor window,” said a shopkeeper from across the lane. “The smoke swallowed him before anyone could do anything.”
Desperate people precariously hung from narrow ledges of the building and even from the hotel’s glow sign before they could be rescued.
“People were banging on windows, some were throwing clothes out. Then I saw a man jump. He hit the ground hard and didn’t get up,” said a fruit vendor who lives nearby.
Rescuers kept pulling bodies from rooms and stairwells, many of them from the upper floors where guests tried to escape, only to find themselves trapped.
“It is evident that some of the victims were trying to run out, but were choked because there were no alternative escape routes. Others hoped to save themselves by locking them up in their rooms until smoke suffocated them to death,” Bipin Ganatra, a voluntary firefighter, told PTI.
None of the firefighting mechanisms at the property was in working condition, he claimed.
Following an inspection of the charred property, Ranvir Kumar, DG of fire services, said, “The hotel owners acquired fire safety NOC three years ago, in 2022. That license has not been renewed since. We have registered an FIR against the owners.”
While locals claimed that co-owner Akash Chawla visited the site late Tuesday night, police said he remained at large.
A visit to the property revealed that a gate, barely eight feet wide, served as its sole entry and exit point.
A dance bar, which police said had no clearance, was under construction on the first floor, the same level where the fire initially started.
The construction had not only led to the sealing of windows which plugged air ventilation, it also blocked the second staircase, officials said.
Fire Services Minister Sujit Basu said that a defunct fire alarm system and inoperative water sprinklers added to the firefighters’ challenges and the victims’ woes.
“Repeated instructions to hotel owners go unheeded. We will take strong steps against those responsible,” he said.
Accusing the TMC minister of “passing the buck”, BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh said, “The wake-up call came long before when so many people were killed in the Stephen Court fire. I refuse to believe that police were unaware of these violations at the hotel.”
Mayor Firhad Hakim said allegations of illegal construction are raised only after a tragedy.
“Why are complaints not raised when violations take place?” he asked. (PTI)
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