Kolkata: A fierce fire crossed a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata killing at least 15 people, police said Wednesday, with some climbed by the windows and towards the roof to escape.
Several people were rescued from the rooms and the roof of the budget hotel, said Kolkata police chief, Boch Verma AFP After the fire broke out on Tuesday night.
“The hotel became a gas chamber and it seems that many people suffocated until death,” said Verma, added that an investigation had been launched to determine the cause of the fire.
The Rituraj Hotel, which had 88 guests when the fire exploded, is located in a congested commercial district in the center of Kolkata.
Around a dozen people were burned and underwent treatment.
Said a hotel worker AFP that the fire exploded on the first floor of the six -story building, where a bar was being built and where the construction work had blocked the windows.
Construction fires are common in India due to the lack of fire extinguishing equipment and routine contempt for safety regulations.
The eyewitness Nanda Mondal, who runs a construction company, said he saw plastic panels that covered the building that seemed to have “fed the fire.”
“A man died after he tried to go down a rainwater pipe,” said Mondal, 64.
‘Negligence’
He Press Trust of India The news agency, which filmed images of very high flames of the Kolkata building, informed that “several people were seen trying to escape through the windows and narrow shelves of the building.”
Kolkata’s The telegraph The newspaper reported that at least one person died when “jumped from the terrace trying to escape” the fire.
Verma said the fire had been approached and that “cooling operations are underway.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to the families of the murdered.
“May the injured recover soon,” said his office in a statement.
Kolkata, a bustling metropolis of more than 15 million people, is the capital of the state of Western Bengal, which is governed by the opposition of the Trinamool Congress Party.
Sajal Ghosh, a city councilor who belongs to the Bharatiya Janata de Modi party, who is in power at the national level, said the fire seemed to have been the result of “negligence.”
“He has also raised new questions about illegal constructions and safety standards in poorly regulated budget hotels in the city,” he said.
