In a bizarre incident, five persons were charred to death in a posh hotel in Lucknow. The fire broke out on Monday morning at Hotel Levana Suites in Hazratganj area of Uttar Pradesh. Over a dozen people have suffered burn injuries in the incident and are being treated at a local hospital. While two people died on the spot remaining three succumbed during treatment at the hospital. The Director General (DG) Fire Service in UP, Avinash Chandra informed that investigations are on to find out the reasons behind this tragedy.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the civil hospital to see the victims and asked Lucknow Commissioner Dr Roshan Jacob and Police Commissioner SB Shirodkar to investigate the matter. He has asked the officials to submit the enquiry report soon. The Police Commissioner has stated that probably a short circuit could be the cause of this fire tragedy in the hotel. The Deputy CM and in charge of health department Brijesh Pathak too reached the hospital to meet the survivors and said that the best possible treatment would be provided to all the injured.
The fire was so intense that the rescue operation in the hotel started early on Monday morning and continued until the afternoon. A forensic team too arrived at the hotel to probe while the police seized the entire area around it. Seven personnel of the Fire department faced burn injuries while rescuing people from the hotel. The police have taken one of the owners of the hotel, Sumer Agarwal in its custody.
The Lucknow Development Authority swung into action after this tragedy and stated that it was built on a residential plot. The authority officials stated that documents related to the permission granted for its construction would be scanned. They said that action would be taken against the guilty officials who allowed the construction of this hotel. One of the officials informed that the zonal officer concerned Rajeev Kumar and junior engineer of the area JN Dubey might face action.
Meanwhile, the state government has issued an advisory to the officials asking them to carry on checking in all the hotels across the state and find out whether the firefighting equipment and exit doors are available there or not. After the directives of the state government, the Police Commissioners of Noida and Lucknow began inspecting all hotels in their respective areas.
