Notice served on Hotel Viraat a month back
LUCKNOW: Chief fire officer said the fire department had issued a notice to Hotel Viraat about a month back as the review of fire safety equipment installed there had been pending for many months.
LUCKNOW : “It was like escaping the clutches of death,” said Inder Kumar Shukla, 38, who was putting up in room number 208 of SSJ International and was rescued by fire fighters.
“My entire life flashed before my eyes when black smoke started getting into my lungs and I slumped to the ground. There was nobody around and I thought I would die,” said Shukla while narrating the sequence of events at the Civil Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment on Tuesday afternoon. He is an assistant manager at a private consultancy in Bareilly and had come to Lucknow on an official visit.
Like Shukla, the guests in both SSJ and Viraat Hotel were asleep when fire broke out early on Tuesday moring.
Shukla, somehow, woke up and started moving when fire fighters rescued him from a window on the fourth floor.
“I can still feel congestion in my chest. It seems that I swallowed charcoal,” said Shukla.
When Inder Kumar Shukla was looking for an exit, a few feet away in room number 211, Amir Ahmed, 26, felt a burning sensation in his chest which broke his sleep. “I saw smoke billowing out of the air conditioner and from the slit under the main door. Alarmed, I opened it to find the entire gallery choked with smoke,” recounted Amir.
“I tried to reach the stairs…all this while the smoke grew darker making it impossible to see anything,” he added.
As the fire originated from the basement and moved upwards, it made it impossible for the guests to go downstairs and escape through the main exit. A small lift in the left corner of the building was beyond reach and there was no emergency exit via the staircase. With no other options of exit, the guests moved towards the terrace, he said.
A resident of Kanpur, Amir had come to meet his friend in Lucknow on Eid. He was planning to return home on Tuesday. He was rescued from the terrace with minor injuries and was sent to the Civil Hospital for medical treatment.