6 killed, several injured in massive fire at hotels near Patna railway station

The fire brigade official said the casualty could rise. Several vehicles, including four-wheelers, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws, were also gutted in the fire, which spread quickly due to strong winds

Patna: Six people were killed and over a dozen injured in a major fire incident that engulfed three buildings of hotels, barely 50 metres from Patna junction on Thursday morning, said a fire brigade official.

Santosh Kumat/HT (A huge fire broke out in a hotel near the Patna railway station)

The fire broke out at the Pal Hotel and soon spread to adjacent buildings before it was extinguished. Firefighting officials said they recovered bodies from the Hotel Pal and the adjoining Amrit Hotel. Dozens were rescued and sent to the Patna Medical College Hospital.

“Six people were brought dead out of the total 18 fire victims admitted at our hospital with different grades of burn injury on Thursday afternoon. The condition of two others with 100% and 95% burn injuries, undergoing treatment in the surgery department, is critical. The identity of the six deceased and two victims, who are critical, have not been identified as yet,” said Dr IS Thakur, medical superintendent of the PMCH.

Ten others, with inhalation injuries, undergoing treatment at the PMCH, have been identified as Poonam Devi, 33, Amlesh Tiwari, 40, Gorakh Kumar, 16, Anurag Singh, 13, Jitendra Kumar, 47, Rohit Kumar, 22, Arvind Tiwari, 45, Vijay Laxmi, 30, Aditya Patel, 23, and Sheikh Dalani, 40, said Dr Thakur.

Firefighting officials said that the brigade tenders reached the spot on time, however, the dousing and rescue operation started late due to the busy and perennially congested stretch. The fire was eventually controlled after seven to eight tenders worked for over two hours, said officials. 

“Over 45 persons stranded on the rooftops were rescued by the fire brigade teams, while over a dozen were admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMcH) for treatment,” said director general-cum-commandant, home guard and fire services Shobha Ohotkar. 

The DG, who was monitoring the operation, said that the congestion in the area had caused trouble, but the fire brigade officials tried their best to reduce casualties and damages while rescuing the people.

“We have been consistently carrying out fire audits and telling hotel owners to maintain proper and working fire safety measures. The hotels should take it seriously. Right now our first objective is to rescue people,” she added.

The fire started at Pal Hotel and soon spread to nearby Amrit Hotel and other buildings. A Border Security Force constable who was having food at Pal Hotel when the tragedy struck said the gas cylinders started bursting after the fire. He said the situation could have been controlled if the fire tenders had reached the spot on time. 

An eyewitness said that the fire tenders could start their operation only after 40 minutes and till then there was chaos in the area.