At least seven people were killed and several others injured in a fire that broke out at a hotel near Tarapith temple in West Bengal's Birbhum district on Monday morning.
Police said the fire broke out around 5 am on the ground floor of the four-storey hotel when most of the guests were asleep.
“The death toll is seven now,” a senior police official told PTI.
Local media reports indicate that a total of 11 people were rescued by firefighters. Those injured have been taken to Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital for treatment. Two people were referred for advanced treatment, while one was discharged.
The hotel was crowded with pilgrims staying overnight to perform rituals on the last Monday of the Shrawan month.
Akshay Dhivar, a guest at the hotel who escaped the fire with his family, recounted his experience to the media.
“I was on the ground floor, in a room next to the reception. I was trying to get out when I saw flames entering the room. My two 10-year-old children, my wife and my sister were in one room. My mother and another sister were in another room. We were trapped in the bathroom. We turned on the water. We broke the bathroom glass. I was trying to breathe. The hotel was destroyed.”
Hotel owners claim that a short circuit in the AC unit caused the fire. The hotel owner's son, Kalyan Pal, told News18 that the night guard at the hotel spotted the fire on one floor and immediately alerted another employee.
"By the time they tried to bring down the jumper, the electrical wires had already caught fire. At the same time, the hotel’s power supply was shut off. Before that, the fire alarm bell was sounded, causing those staying in the hotel rooms to become alert and start coming outside. However, the danger increased when the smoke gradually began to rise upward, and many people started having difficulty breathing because of the smoke," he added.
