NAGPUR: Seven people were killed when a fire broke out at a hotel in Gondia, a little over 150 km from here, in eastern Maharashtra early on Wednesday morning.
The blaze is believed to have started around 4 a.m. in a shop on the premises of hotel Bindal Plaza, located on the busy Gorelal chowk at a prime location in the city, and soon spread in the building, according to the police. Around 20 people, including the hotel staff, were inside the Bindal Plaza hotel building at the time.
“Seven people have died in this fire accident, out of which six died because of fire burns and suffocation caused by the fire and one person was killed when he jumped from the second floor,” Gondia district Superintendent of Police Dilip Bhujbal said.
He said the firefighters and policemen managed to rescue 11 people from the hotel.
“Prima facie it looks as if the fire may have been caused due to some electrical wire malfunction. But we can not conclude anything before the investigation is complete,” added Mr.Bhujbal.
Of the seven deceased, one body is charred beyond recognition.
The other six were identified as Surendra Hiralal Soni from Bhopal, Ravindra Jain from Indore, Premsantosh Sabu and Pravesh Deshkar from Nagpur, Aditya Pahude from Chandrapur and Abhijit Patil from Sangli.
The hotel is owned by Ashish Agrwal, a local businessman.
Fire tenders were called from neighbouring Balaghat, Bhandara, Tumsar, Lanji and also from Adani Power Plant in Tirora to help douse the flames, a fire officer said.
The District Collector Abhimanyu Kale, and Mr. Bhujbal rushed to the site and supervised the rescue work even as
the policemen had a tough time in controlling the crowds gathered outside.
