Kolkata: 2 dead in hotel fire; owner, manager arrested
Anup Agarwal and Jugalkishore Gupta, guests at the hotel, were rushed to a hospital after suffering serious injuries in the fire, but could not be saved.
The two deceased guests- a 48 year old ,Bamal Krishna from Odisha and a 40 year old ,Anup Agarwal from Gujarat died being suffocated from the smoke.
"Two people have been taken into police custody," said Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata and Minister of Fire & Emergency.
BS Gujral, who is the owner of the hotel and Gautam Mazumder, hotel manager have been arrested by Shakespeare Sarani Police. On the basis of complaint, a case has been started against the hotel owner and management staff of Hotel Golden Parkk.
A forensic team also visited the spot and collected samples from the place of accident. The hotel was evacuated around 31 people were rescued from 29 hotel rooms, among whom 2 people are critically injured. The injured are admitted in the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.
Around 10 Fire Brigade engines and Disaster Management unit controlled the fire at the hotel.
Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee asserted that the fire broke out from the kitchen in the first floor of the hotel and spread out to the entire hotel.
The disaster management unit had to break the glass window panes to rescue the people.
"Fire broke out from the kitchen on the 1st floor and reached the room nearby where the AC duct, electricity duct got involved in the fire and people were working there. Gradually the fire and smoke reached the third floor and the entire four-floored building was affected," said Chatterjee.
According to the sources, there were no fire-control facilities available in the hotel. The hotel guests had to break window panes and climb down using chimney pipes.
"I was in room No. 309. Getting suffocated due to the smoke, I woke at about 3 am. When I rushed to open the door, I realised that fire has broke out in the hotel. We had to open the window panes from the back of the hotel and climb down using the chimney pipe. We got injured. The fire brigade, the disaster management and other authorities arrived on time," said a hotel guest, Sumit Kumar Chakraborty from Purulia.
The mayor has ensured that proper investigation should happen in the matter.
(With inputs from Shyam Sundar Ghosh)
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