20240520 Fire breaks out in week-old Noida hotel, its first guest suffocates to death
India May 20 2024 “Building”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire breaks out in week-old Noida hotel, its first guest suffocates to death
Updated: 2024-05-20
Noida: A 27-year-old woman suffocated to death while her friend is battling grievous injuries after a fire broke out in a hotel in Sector 104 on Saturday evening.
A physiotherapist by profession, Palak, and her engineer friend Tarun Kumar of Delhi’s Mayur Vihar phase 1 were the first customers of Hotel Moon, which opened on Akshay Tritiya on May 10. They had taken a room on the top floor of the six-storey building.
Chief fire officer Pradeep Pal said that the hotel staff wasted some 30 minutes trying to douse the flames on their own and called up the fire department only when the blaze went out of control.
“We got a call at 5.35pm. Ten fire tenders were sent to the spot from various fire stations. The blaze was brought under control in 25 minutes. The flames would not have spread to other floors had the hotel staff informed us in time,” he added.
The fire, Pal said, broke out on the fourth floor while the smoke barrelled up the AC duct to the sixth-floor room of Palak and Tarun.
“We formed a team of rescuers who went to the terrace of the adjacent building and brought out the two persons. Both of them were unconscious and sent to a nearby hospital, where the woman was declared dead on arrival,” he added.
The hotel was inaugurated on May 10. “Vimlesh Jha, who owns the building, had leased it out for three years to Akash Sharma, a resident of Shamli in UP. We have come to know that the hotel staff did not even try to call the two customers and inform them about the fire. There were only two guests at the hotel then,” Pal said.
Preliminary investigation revealed a short circuit might have caused the fire when ACs were being installed on the fourth floor.
“No, the hotel did not have any no objection certificate from the fire department. Though it did have all the equipment in place. We will file a police complaint against the hotel owner,” Pal said.
A hotel staffer admitted they did not know what to do for the first few minutes when the fire broke out. “Some shop owners rushed to the reception and informed us. We rushed to the fourth floor to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher and buckets of water. But heavy smoke had already filled the corridors, making it difficult for us to see,” he told TOI.
Palak and Tarun had checked into the hotel on Friday.
Web Source The Times of India