Summary Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations
KOLKATA (AFP) - A fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, authorities said, with investigators suspecting a faulty air conditioner may be the cause.
“Nine people, including a child, were killed in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,” Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of West Bengal state, told AFP.
“Thick smoke enveloped the hotel. Some victims were found in the bathrooms.”
Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations.
Preliminary information suggested an air conditioner at the budget Shika Inn hotel may have exploded and caused the blaze, Sharma said.
A forensic team was deployed to examine the scene after the fire had been brought under control.
Sixty guests were staying at the hotel, police said in a statement. Media reports said six people were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
On Monday, eight people died in a fire at a hotel in the state’s holy town of Tarapith, where Hindu devotees had gathered for the sacred month of Shravan.
Some of the victims of Wednesday’s fire were likely Bangladeshi nationals who had travelled to Kolkata for medical treatment, said Santosh Pathak, a member of West Bengal’s ruling party.
“We are trying to confirm the nationality of the victims,” he told reporters.
The Indian Express newspaper, quoting police sources, said three of the dead were from Bangladesh.
Atiyar Rehman, a guest from Satkhira in Bangladesh, told the English-language daily that the hotel had no fire safety system.
“We woke up struggling to breathe in the smoke. We somehow managed to escape,” Rehman said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “extremely pained” to learn about the loss of life.
“May the injured recover at the earliest. The local administration is assisting those who are affected,” he said in a social media post.
West Bengal’s fire minister, Kaushik Chaudhary, said police were probing possible safety lapses at the hotel, located in a crowded and busy quarter of the city.
Firefighters used ladders to scale the building, get inside through the windows and rescue people trapped inside.
“The dense smoke made it difficult for firefighters to climb the staircase and reach the upper floors,” a police officer was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
