Kolkata: The building that was up in flames and the headquarters of fire and emergency services were about 40m apart on Free School Street (Mirza Ghalib Street). There wasn’t any delay in response either. The fire brigade had arrived at the spot in about a minute after the call that was made to alert them. But it was still too late. Everything on the second floor was gutted. The firefighters could recover only the charred bodies of nine people sleeping at Shikha Inn during the wee hours of Wednesday. Cops from New Market police station and fire brigade personnel rescued the boarders of other hotels and guest houses, running out of the same building, and rushed the victims as well as the injured to the hospital.According to the police, the fire broke out on the second floor around 1.45 am but the New Market police station had received the alert around 2 am. The fire brigade headquarters, that stands next to two buildings, was alerted around 2.07 am over a call. The first tender reached the spot in the very next minute. “It was late at night and the hotel’s lone staffer, who was on duty, had also died in the fire. We presume this is the possible reason as to why the call was made about 20 minutes after the outbreak ,” said a police officer. Four fire tenders were pressed into the service to douse the flames.Md Ujjal (49), a trader from Khulna in Bangladesh, had travelled to Kolkata about a year-and-a half ago. For him, it was “a dreadful experience“ that he never had in the past 18 years in the city. He was in a guest house on the same floor and got stuck for about 40 minutes until he was evacuated by the fire brigade personnel.“I saw the hotel next to me was burning but for me, there was no way to escape. Breathing became challenging and I moved to the other side of the floor and stood beside a grill. I was shouting for help as I feared that the fire might gut the entire building in no time or the floor I was standing would cave at any moment,” he recounted.Around 6 am, Rahaman and some other boarders entered the building to bring out their passports, medical visas and other documents left in their rooms. “By the grace of God, my belongings were not damaged and I could retrieve those. Since 1998, I have been coming to Kolkata to buy goods that I sell in Khulna. Earlier, I used to come here six or seven times a year. After the turmoil, it has got difficult to get visa but I came here after 1.5 years. Little did I know that the resumption of my trip would turn out to be a nightmare in this way,” he said.Another survivor, Arafat Hossain, and his wife, Faran Akhter, ran to the terrace with their 13-month-old baby, who was to be administered with his last vaccine on Wednesday. “My wife got senseless due to the smoke. I managed to sprinkle water on her face and she regained consciousness. My son is undergoing treatment for intestine. His vaccination schedule is also underway. He was born here and we have since been living here. After this incident, we have shifted to another hotel. Once my son gets his vaccine dose, we will return to Bangladesh,” he said.Dhaka resident, Nazmul Sarkar, had woken up after hearing the some people shout. He opened the door and found smoke was billowing from the second floor. He knocked on the doors of other rooms on the third floor, alerting them about the fire. “We moved to the terrace and raised an alarm for help. We saw the fire brigade arriving the spot and after 25 minutes, they rescued us,” he said.(With inputs from Biplab Bhattacharjee)
