‘Toll got higher as hotel staff escaped without alerting guests’

LUCKNOW : Negligence and irresponsibility on part of the staff and owners of Hotel Viraat and SSJ International resulted in higher casualties, said the chief fire officer of Lucknow on Tuesday.

“Some lives could have been saved if the staff and owners had been alert and informed the fire service control room in time. But the staff of the two hotels preferred escaping instead of alerting the guests sleeping unaware,” said CFO AB Pandey.

He said that all guests could have been brought out safely had the staff acted responsibly.

”Locals vendors said the fire broke out at around 5.30 am, but the fire service control room was informed at around 6.05 am, nearly 30 minutes later. The fire tenders then took another 15 minutes to reach the spot. The rescue operation would have started much earlier and all people trapped inside could have been brought out,” he said.

The CFO said that the fire fighting team found at least three damaged fire extinguishers in the basement of SSJ International. “Timely use would have doused the initial flames,” he said adding that the fire department had issued a notice to Hotel Viraat about a month back. “It was done as the review of fire safety equipment installed there had been pending for many months,” said Pandey.

He said the cause of the fire could not be ascertained in preliminary inquiry, but what was sure was that the fire had started from the basement of SSJ International. “There could be different reasons behind the fire, such as, short-circuit or blast in AC compressor or an LPG cylinder. Efforts are on to ascertain the cause,” he added.