Lucknow, May 18 : At least 30 people were safely evacuated after a fire broke out at Hotel Mohan located adjacent to Charbagh railway station in Lucknow on Saturday midnight, authorities said.
Timely intervention by firefighters, police, and locals averted a tragedy. No major property damage was reported.
Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Mangesh Kumar said three fire tenders were immediately dispatched, while local police managed crowd control.
According to the police, the fire broke out around 12:30 a.m. in the hotel’s basement kitchen due to gas leak from a cooking cylinder.
The flames quickly spread to the ground and first floors, while thick smoke engulfed the upper floors, leaving several guests trapped in their rooms.
Firefighters launched a swift evacuation operation, assisted by Charbagh Yuva Vyapar Mandal president Manjeet Singh Dua and local youth Monu Singh.
“Nearly 17 rooms were evacuated. About 30 guests were safely brought out, including 15 who were rescued from smoke-filled upper floors,” said CFO Kumar.
The CFO added they will conduct a probe on whether fire safety measures were in place at the hotel.
“Total seventeen rooms were occupied on the ground floor. There were a total of thirty people in the seventeen rooms. All the people have been evacuated,” he said.
The CFO has added that the cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained, but it is suspected that LPG or electrical wiring might have caused it.
He said, “Nothing can be known yet because there was a fire in the kitchen, so there are many areas in the kitchen, which are there to catch fire because LPG is also there. There are other things that are used in cooking. There are electrical things.”
Windows on the second floor were broken to ventilate the area and evacuate trapped guests.
Monu Singh sustained minor injuries while smashing the glass and was admitted to Civil Hospital. The hotel is owned by Anil Kumar Agrawal.
–IANS