Five people, including a one-year-old, were killed and 11 others were injured after a fire broke out in two hotels in Lucknow on Tuesday, officials said.
The injured include four minors aged between five and 15. The condition of at least three injured people is said to be critical. At least 86 guests were rescued by firefighters. Many vehicles in the parking areas of the hotels were also damaged.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Lucknow, Deepak Kumar said the fire broke out in SSJ International and Viraat International.
Kumar said the fire started from the basement of SSJ International at around 5.30am apparently due to a short circuit and flames soon engulfed the adjoining Viraat International.
The SSP said over a dozen people rescued from the blaze were sent to the civil hospital where five people, including a child named Maher were declared brought dead.
He added that they reportedly suffocated to death.
Besides Maher, the others deceased who could be identified included Santosh Mane from Pune, Priyank Sharma from Aligarh and Ganesh Prasad from Patna. Kumar said Maher’s mother Rani (25) was also critically injured with around 85% burns and was undergoing treatment in civil hospital.
The SSP said a preliminary probe suggested that fire fighting equipment was installed in both hotels but the staff was not trained to use it.
‘An FIR has been lodged against hotel owners, Arpit Jaiswal of SSJ International and Surendra Jaiswal of Viraat International, as well as the employees for negligence and putting human lives to danger,’ said the SSP.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the deceased and ₹50,000 each to those grievously injured in the blaze. By HT
