KOLKATA(National Times)- A fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, authorities said, with investigators suspecting a faulty air conditioner may be the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNine people, including a child, were killed in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,\u201d Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of West Bengal state, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThick smoke enveloped the hotel. Some victims were found in the bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building fires are common in India due to a lack of firefighting equipment and routine disregard for safety regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Preliminary information suggested an air conditioner at the budget Shika Inn hotel may have exploded and caused the blaze, Sharma said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A forensic team was deployed to examine the scene after the fire had been brought under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onlookers and fire personnel gather at the site following a fire at a hotel in Kolkata on August 19, 2026. \u2014 AFP
Sixty guests were staying at the hotel, police said in a statement. Media reports said six people were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, eight people died in a fire at a hotel in the state\u2019s holy town of Tarapith, where Hindu devotees had gathered for the sacred month of Shravan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the victims of Wednesday\u2019s fire were likely Bangladeshi nationals who had travelled to Kolkata for medical treatment, said Santosh Pathak, a member of West Bengal\u2019s ruling party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are trying to confirm the nationality of the victims,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian Express newspaper, quoting police sources, said three of the dead were from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atiyar Rehman, a guest from Satkhira in Bangladesh, told the English-language daily that the hotel had no fire safety system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe woke up struggling to breathe in the smoke. We somehow managed to escape,\u201d Rehman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was \u201cextremely pained\u201d to learn about the loss of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMay the injured recover at the earliest. The local administration is assisting those who are affected,\u201d he said in a social media post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
West Bengal\u2019s fire minister, Kaushik Chaudhary, said police were probing possible safety lapses at the hotel, located in a crowded and busy quarter of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firefighters used ladders to scale the building, get inside through the windows and rescue people trapped inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe dense smoke made it difficult for firefighters to climb the staircase and reach the upper floors,\u201d a police officer was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KOLKATA(National Times)- A fire ripped through a hotel in the Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday, killing nine people, authorities said, with investigators suspecting a faulty air conditioner may be the cause. \u201cNine people, including a child, were killed in the fire that broke out early on Wednesday,\u201d Anuj Sharma, the fire services director of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n