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Lucknow hotel fire: Survivors get smoke-filled shock as darkness engulfs morning
Lucknow hotel fire survivors say no fire alarm was heard and they woke up in smoke-filled rooms on Monday morning
Survivors of the Levana Suites hotel fire in Lucknow recalled waking up to smoke all around their rooms on Monday morning.
“I woke up and noticed only black smoke in my room,” said Ansh Kaushik, a gold medallist at the Commonwealth Crossbow Shooting Championship 2019, who holds senior position in a corporate group and had come to Lucknow for work.
Ansh, who has taken part in several national level tourneys and won nine medals, was among those rescued from the hotel in the city’s Hazratganj area on Monday after the fire broke out early morning. The survivors were admitted to the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital (Civil hospital) emergency ward where chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited to take stock of the patients’ condition and treatment.
“No alarm was heard. I saw smoke and managed to escape by removing the window pane. I stood at the small porch outside the window and finally came down to ground floor via ladder put up to rescue us,” Ansh said.
Mona, who had come to Lucknow from Delhi for office work, said, “I was sleeping when the incident took place. I got up due to bad smell and noticed smoke. I rushed out of the room and finally managed to get out with the help of the rescue team. It was tough for me to find the way as the escape route was not familiar.
Another survivor Kamini, who was also admitted to the Civil Hospital, said, “The way out was not known to me. Hence, I had to struggle a lot before I could finally come out.”
Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, who visited the patients at Civil hospital soon after the chief minister, said, “I met the patients and have spoken to doctors about treatment.”
Pathak also went to the spot of the incident at Levana Suites Hotel after his visit to the hospital.
All those admitted to Civil Hospital had suffered suffocation, said doctors.
“Two of the admitted patients have sustained burn injuries too. They are now stable,” said chief medical officer of Lucknow, Dr Manoj Agrawal, who had sent a dozen ambulances after getting information about the incident.
“As soon as we got the information, our staff made over a dozen beds ready. The admissions were done swiftly,” said Dr Anand Ojha, director of Civil Hospital. All admitted patients were provided oxygen support.
Those rescued and admitted to hospital are: Shrawan Kumar, 30, Raj Kumar, 28, Mona, 24, Kamini, 33, Chandresh Yadav, 27, Pradip Maurya, 29, Ansh Kaushik, 35, Anand Upadhaya, 40, Anu Goel, Abhishek Shukla, Ankit Vishal, Imran Ahan, Shreya Tiwari, Shikhar, Praveen Gupta, Farheen Ansari, Shivam Awasthy, Sandip Tyagi and Ishan Srivastava.
Pradip is a staffer with the fire department.
The condition of Chandresh Yadav was stated to be serious.
“When admitted, he was serious and his oxygen level was 70. At present, oxygen level is 90-97. He is stable at present,” said Dr Anand Ojha.
