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Five people, including a year-old baby girl, were burnt alive while a dozen others were injured as a fire broke out in a three-storey hotel and spread to an adjacent hotel near Charbagh railway station in Lucknow on Tuesday.
The owners and employees of both the hotels fled soon after the fire broke out and are absconding, police said. Fourteen fire tenders took around four hours to douse the flames.
Police suspect a short circuit in the basement started the fire at Hotel SSJ International, located on a congested street near Charbagh railway station. The blaze soon spread to other floors and then to Hotel Viraat International.
According to fire department officials, both hotels had fire safety equipment, but none of it was used because the staff fled on spotting the flames. Neither of the hotels had obtained No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the fire department.
“The fire started around 5 am. Around 16 people were taken to the hospital, and five of them lost their lives. The rest are undergoing treatment at different hospitals in the district,” said Naka police station in-charge, SSI Ashraful A Siddiqui.
“The staff of both SSJ International and Viraat International, including their respective owners Surendra Jaiswal and Arpit Jaiswal, are absconding,” said Siddiqui.
Lucknow Chief Fire Officer Abhay Bhan Pandey told The Indian Express that there were around 55 people trapped in the hotel when the fire started.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed sorrow over the loss of lives in the fire. The government announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for family members of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for each of the grievously injured.
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