Bangla Press Desk: When fire engulfed a hotel near Kolkata’s New Market, Bangladeshi brothers Mohammad Asaful Jamal and his brother from Gazipur fled to the roof to survive.
There was no way down. Thick smoke filled the building, making it impossible to see even a hand’s length ahead.
Nine people have so far been reported dead, five of them Bangladeshi, according to Bangladesh’s foreign ministry.
Three more victims are suspected to be Bangladeshi.
Asaful had been staying at the fourth-floor hotel on Mirza Ghalib Street since Saturday for business. He and his brother were asleep after dinner when shouting woke him before 2am.
He opened the window and saw people below shouting that the building was on fire. But thick smoke poured into the room as soon as they opened the door.
“We could not go downstairs. Somehow, we made our way through the smoke to the roof. There were 20 to 25 of us. We all gathered near the water tank. We did not know where the fire might have come from,” Asaful told Anandabazar Patrika.
“We decided that if we saw flames, we would take water from the tank and try to put them out. We thought we were going to die.”
‘I Could Not Breathe’
Dhaka’s Mohammad Nazmul Sarkar was also staying on the fourth floor for heart treatment.
“At one point, I thought I would die. There was no oxygen. I could not breathe,” he said.
Hotel staff told guests to move upstairs, but a narrow iron staircase allowed only one person at a time. Nazmul used his phone’s light to find his way through the smoke.
Back into the Fire for Passports
Kawsar Hossain was staying at a lower-floor hotel with his family and child. After escaping, he realised their passports were still inside.
He re-entered the burning building to retrieve them.
The fire has triggered questions over safety at Kolkata’s hotels and guest houses. Police have formed a special investigation team, while West Bengal authorities plan audits of fire-safety systems.
A fire official said the building housed separate hotels on almost every floor and was extremely cramped. The blaze began on the third floor but smoke quickly engulfed the building.
