Initial information suggests an air conditioner at the hotel may have exploded, causing the blaze, says official
\n Kolkata
\nA fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, authorities said, with investigators suspecting a faulty air conditioner may be the cause.
\n\u201cNine people, including a child, were killed in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,\u201d Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of West Bengal state, told AFP.
\n\u201cThick smoke enveloped the hotel. Some victims were found in the bathrooms.\u201d
\nBuilding fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations.
\nPreliminary information suggested an air conditioner at the budget Shika Inn hotel may have exploded and caused the blaze, Sharma said.
\nA forensic team was deployed to examine the scene after the fire had been brought under control.
\nSixty guests were staying at the hotel, police said in a statement. Media reports said six people were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
\nOn Monday, eight people died in a fire at a hotel in the state\u2019s holy town of Tarapith, where Hindu devotees had gathered for the sacred month of Shravan.
\nSome of the victims of Wednesday\u2019s fire were likely Bangladeshi nationals who had travelled to Kolkata for medical treatment, said Santosh Pathak, a member of West Bengal\u2019s ruling party.
\n\u201cWe are trying to confirm the nationality of the victims,\u201d he told reporters.
\nThe Indian Express newspaper, quoting police sources, said three of the dead were from Bangladesh.
\nAtiyar Rehman, a guest from Satkhira in Bangladesh, told the English-language daily that the hotel had no fire safety system.
\n\u201cWe woke up struggling to breathe in the smoke. We somehow managed to escape,\u201d Rehman said.
\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi said he was \u201cextremely pained\u201d to learn about the loss of life.
\n\u201cMay the injured recover at the earliest. The local administration is assisting those who are affected,\u201d he said in a social media post.
\nWest Bengal\u2019s fire minister, Kaushik Chaudhary, said police were probing possible safety lapses at the hotel, located in a crowded and busy quarter of the city.
\nFirefighters used ladders to scale the building, get inside through the windows and rescue people trapped inside.
\n\u201cThe dense smoke made it difficult for firefighters to climb the staircase and reach the upper floors,\u201d a police officer was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Initial information suggests an air conditioner at the hotel may have exploded, causing the blaze, says official Kolkata A fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, authorities said, with investigators suspecting a faulty air conditioner may be the cause. \u201cNine people, including a child, were killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n