A major fire broke out at a city hotel in the early hours of Thursday, killing two persons.
Fire brigade officials said that 31 persons, including boarders and hotel staff, were rescued from the hotel. Six people sustained injuries in the incident.
Fire was first reported at around 2.55 a.m. on the first floor of the Golden Park Hotel located on city’s Ho Chi Minh Sarani. Within minutes the smoke spread through the central air condition duct of the five-storied hotel.
Personnel belonging to the Kolkata Police’s disaster management group and fire fighters broke the glass window panes of the hotel to ease out the smoke.
“The causalities have occurred because of suffocation. A thick black layer of carbon has deposited inside the hotel,” a fire fighter said. Some boarders jumped from the window to escape fire.
As many as 10 fire tenders were pressed into service to control the fire.
The incident brought back memories of AMRI Hospital fire in south Kolkata in December 2011 where more than 90 patients died of suffocation.
