A devastating fire at a hotel in Tarapith, West Bengal, claimed the lives of eight individuals early Monday morning. Investigations reveal that locked emergency exits on every floor, the absence of a staff member with keys to those exits, and a reportedly non-functional fire-fighting system were significant factors in the tragedy. Officials are looking into these safety failures as part of the ongoing inquiry into the incident.
Police and fire brigade officials found the victims’ bodies on staircases and in the corridors.
“We are checking whether the hotel had a proper fire-fighting system in place. Guests alleged that the fire alarm system did not work when the fire broke out. Many hoteliers learned about the fire when they heard screams and people shouting. “We never heard any alarm. There was a power cut and it was totally dark. There was smoke all over and fire in the corridor. There was no water from the sprinklers.
Officials said that they spotted fire extinguishers inside the hotel. Investigation is going on,” said Chowdhury. There were no hotel staff to operate the fire extinguisher,” said Biswanath Saha, a survivor.
“But they were all locked. The staff who had the keys was also not there. “All the floors had emergency exits leading to an external stair case.
Officials said there were emergency exits on each floor that led to a staircase at the rear end of the building. Had they been open, more people could have survived,” said a senior officer of Rampurhat sub-division, who rushed to the spot. They were found to be locked,” Kaushik Chowdhury, state fire and emergency services minister told HT.
