Sonali Tiwary
At least nine people, including a child, died in a fire at a hotel in central Kolkata in the early hours of Wednesday 19 August, the second such deadly blaze in West Bengal within days.
The fire broke out around 2 a.m. on the second floor of Sikha Inn, inside Florence Mansion on Mirza Ghalib Street in the New Market police station area, according to The Hindu. About 60 people were rescued from the five-storey building, which houses several guesthouses and inns mostly used by Bangladeshi visitors to the city. Officials said five of the dead were Bangladeshi nationals, two were from Bihar and West Bengal, and two were yet to be identified.
The incident came two days after a fire in the pilgrimage town of Tarapith killed nine people, raising questions about safety standards in smaller hotels and guesthouses. State ministers visited the Kolkata site after the blaze.
Fires in budget hotels and guesthouses have repeatedly exposed gaps in enforcement of fire-safety rules in India. Many such buildings operate in older structures with narrow staircases, limited exits and no functional fire-suppression systems. Emergency responders often face difficulty reaching upper floors quickly in congested urban areas, as seen in other recent fire emergencies and evacuations.
The two fires within days have drawn attention to fire-safety enforcement in small hotels across the state. The cause of the Mirza Ghalib Street fire has not been officially confirmed. Police and fire officials said rescue teams worked through the night to bring people down from the upper floors. The deaths have renewed attention on the condition of small hotels across Indian cities, where demand from domestic and cross-border travellers often outpaces oversight.
