KOLKATA: Nine people, at least five of them Bangladeshi nationals, choked to death in their sleep after a fire broke out at a lodge inside a five-storey building on Free School Street in central Kolkata around 1.40 am Wednesday, trapping guests inside smoke-filled rooms. Around 80 people were rescued from the building that also houses several other guest houses, lodges, eateries, offices and retail outlets.Located at 15G Mirza Ghalib Street (Free School Street), the building is just about 40 metres from the state fire brigade headquarters and less than a kilometre from Kolkata Municipal Corporation headquarters and New Market.All the deaths occurred on the second floor of the building, where the fire possibly started following a short circuit in the reception area of Shikha Inn. Kolkata Police has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident while KMC has set up a five-member team to carry out a fire-safety audit of all hotels across the city. Cops are searching for Bireswar Mitra, a Behala resident who owns the building and several hotels in the area.The tragedy comes within 48 hours of a similar hotel fire that claimed nine lives in a hotel packed with pilgrims in the temple town of Tarapith.While survivors claimed they learnt of the fire at around 1.40 am, it was only at 2 am that New Market Police Station received an alert. A call went to the fire brigade HQ at 2.07 am and fire engines reached the spot in less than a minute but by then fatalities had already occurred, officials said.Among the five Bangladeshi nationals killed were four members of a family from Kushtia — Debasish Dutta (39), his wife Afshana Shamim (27), their three-year-old son Swarnasish, and Afshana’s father Akram Ali (74) — who had travelled to India for medical treatment.The fifth deceased Bangladeshi, Babu Ahmed (37), was also from Kushtia. The Indian victims were identified as hotel guest Yog Narayan Agarwal (68) from Siliguri and Sandip Paswan (19), a hotel staffer who hailed from Jharkhand. Two bodies are yet to be identified.The only survivors from the lodge were Somaiya Akhtar and her husband Rizaul Islam, who stood on a parapet for nearly 30 minutes before being rescued.Firefighters said the victims appeared to have died in their sleep. “All of them were found in their rooms, indicating none had attempted to escape,” said a fireman. Doctors confirmed that the deaths were due to asphyxiation and not burns. “During rescue operation, nine persons were found unconscious and were immediately removed to Medical College & Hospital but were declared brought dead,” said additional CP (crime) Kunal Agarwal.Fire minister Kaushik Chowdhury said the lodges and other establishments in the building were functioning without fire-safety measures and did not have necessary permits to run their businesses. KMC officials said Shikha Inn had a trade licence but acknowledged safety compliances were not checked during online renewal.Originally a residential building, the five-storey structure turned into a commercial establishment over the years with several guest houses operating alongside offices on the premises. Internal partitions were built to maximise space, creating small cubicle-like rooms along narrow corridors. Firefighters said the narrow staircase and corridors made evacuation difficult. Sources said fire alarms and firefighting equipment were unavailable in the building.“I was sleeping in my room when my son, who was in an adjacent room, banged on the door and told us to evacuate as a fire had broken out in the building. The entire corridor was filled with smoke. People were trying to find escape routes. Due to my age and health, I could not run to safety. I was still in my room when the firemen arrived,” said Pinky Sahu, a tourist from Bhubaneswar, Odisha.Shamsuzzaman Khan, from Murshidabad, who had checked into Shikha Inn on Tuesday evening, said a hotel employee woke them up. “We rushed out in our night clothes and could not retrieve anything. By the time I got out of the building, I could hardly breathe,” said Khan.The tragedy has raised questions over fire-safety arrangements in the 250 to 300 hotels, lodges and guest houses that dot Free School Street, Marquis Street, Sudder Street, Collin Lane and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, an area frequented by Bangladeshi nationals.Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari expressed shock and anguish over the incident. “While we remain focused on rescue and relief operations and conduct an investigation into what went wrong, it is impossible to ignore the reality we are facing today. This tragedy is a grim reminder of the legacy of negligence left behind by the previous regime. For years, the city’s and state’s infrastructure was allowed to grow unchecked, with structures being permitted to be built and operate as hotels and other businesses while completely ignoring mandatory fire safety norms. The previous administration systematically looked the other way, failing to enforce basic compliance audits and allowing these unsafe conditions to fester,” he said.Expressing his condolences, PM Modi said in a post on X, “Extremely pained to learn about the loss of lives due to a fire mishap in Kolkata.”
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