Bhubaneswar: A catastrophic fire at a six-storey hotel in Kolkata’s Burrabazar area claimed the lives of 14 people, including four from Odisha, on Tuesday night.
The victims from Odisha have been identified as Dushmanta Kumar Nayak (46), Dushmanta Kumar Swain (46), and Manoj Kumar Patra (45), all from Jagatsinghpur district, along with an unidentified individual from the CDA area in Cuttack.
The four men, employees of a Bhubaneswar-based private finance company, were in Kolkata on official business.
The fire broke out around 8:15 PM in the hotel located at Mechhuapatty, rapidly transforming the building into a deadly gas chamber as thick smoke filled the premises with no escape routes.
Most victims succumbed to suffocation, while one person died after falling from a cornice in a desperate attempt to flee.
Reports indicate that the hotel was hosting 88 guests across its 42 rooms at the time of the incident.
In response to the tragedy, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh for the families of each deceased victim and Rs 50,000 for those injured.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also pledged Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
The cause of the fire is under investigation and efforts are underway to identify the remaining victim from Odisha.
