Kolkata fire survivors recollect ‘terrifying' incident

The Hindu

30-04-2025

A 10-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy from Tamil Nadu, who were visiting West Bengal with their family, were among the casualties of a fire in a hotel in central Kolkata's Burrabazar, which took at least 14 lives on Tuesday night.
On Wednesday (April 30, 2025), after identity verification, the post-mortem of the two children was completed at Kolkata's Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital (NRSMCH). A sombre atmosphere prevailed outside the hospital morgue, where the bodies of five victims had been sent for post-mortem.
The two children were identified as P. Rathin and P. Diya by the police. The family hails from the southern State's Karur district, and was on a tour of West Bengal for the past few days.
The bereaved mother, who waited at the hospital morgue for hours on Wednesday afternoon, left in the evening, sobbing profusely as the bodies of her children were taken out in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's (KMC) hearse vans.
Weeping, she said her son would go everywhere with his father. 'Yesterday, they did not come with us when we stepped out. My son wanted to watch TV. Why did I leave them behind? Why did we not take them along?' she said, overtaken by grief.
'My children were with me for only a few years. How can I go on without them now? My husband and I were raising them with so much labour and love. He would pick them up; they would kiss us on our cheeks,' she said, speaking in both Tamil and English.
Three acquaintances, possibly Kolkata locals, accompanied her. The grief-stricken mother was surrounded by police personnel and KMC officials, stationed through the day at the NRSMCH.
A high-ranking KMC official told The Hindu that arrangements had been made to preserve the bodies of the deceased in the mortuary till the bereaved families could arrange to take them home.
Preliminary reports have suggested 'those who died were victims of suffocation/jumping etc.', West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee posted on social media.
Terror-stricken
After the fire broke out at about 8.15 p.m. on Tuesday night, several of the hotel's guests as well as staff were seen jumping from the higher floors to escape. Many were rescued by Fire Services personnel. Survivors said the staircase of the hotel had filled with dense and toxic smoke, as did the corridors, rendering them inaccessible.
Neha and Akash Agarwal from Odisha said they had broken the windows of their room to stand on the flat protruding area outside in order to escape.
'Our nephew called us and said a fire had broken out, and that we should leave immediately. We thought of taking the stairs, but when we opened the door to our room, we saw the place was filled with smoke. I shut the door and broke the glass window so that we could breathe. I asked my wife and nephew to wait on the platform on the outer wall of the building,' Mr. Agarwal told local media persons.
His wife said they were in Kolkata on a holiday and could not have imagined experiencing such a 'terrifying' incident. 'The fire alarms and firefighting equipment in the hotel were all defunct. The hotel staff did not help either. The only help we got while escaping was from the police and the Fire Services personnel,' the couple said.