Ten people lost their lives and 13 others were injured in a major fire that broke out in the Goyal Residency hotel in Pratapgarh town of Uttar Pradesh early on Friday. Among the dead are two women and a hotel employee.
Unofficial reports however, put the death toll at 13.
State IG (Crime) R.K. Swarnkar told reporters here that the fire was caused by a short circuit at around 4.30 am in the hotel’s restaurant located on the ground floor. “While 10 guests sleeping in their rooms died, 13 were injured in the melee that followed the blaze,” Mr. Swarnkar said. He said nine of the injured were referred to Allahabad for treatment and four were admitted to the Pratapgarh district hospital. Three of the injured persons are still under treatment in Allahabad while the rest have been discharged, the IG (Crime) added.
Nine of the deceased have been identified as Brijesh Kumar (hotel employee), Manoj (Allahabad), Priyanka (Ranchi, Jharkhand), Basant Narayan (Pune), Satyavrat (manager, Indira Gandhi Hospital, Lucknow), Dilip Kumar (Dhoomanganj, Allahabad), Vishal (Gorakhpur), Dharmendra Rai (Bhelupur, Varanasi) and Khalid Kirmani (Barabanki). The second female victim has not been identified.
Mr. Swarnkar said a case had been lodged in the Bhelupur police station in Varanasi against the hotel management by a relative of one of the victims, under Sections 436, 304 of the IPC.
Pratapgarh SP Balikaran Singh Yadav said as the smoke from the blaze spread through the four-storeyed building, people sleeping in their rooms died of asphyxiation. “Those who were awake managed to escape, with some persons jumping out of the building,” the SP told The Hindu.
The fire is said to have intensified after the foam in the hotel furniture caught fire.
As panic prevailed in the hotel, the police and fire authorities were contacted only after about 40 minutes. Three fire tenders were pressed into service at around 5.15 a.m. and the blaze was contained after two hours.
