Kolkata, August 19, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Nine people, including two women and a child, died in a hotel fire on Mirza Ghalib Street in central Kolkata early Wednesday, with preliminary findings indicating that the victims died from suffocation rather than burn injuries, officials said.
Police and West Bengal Fire Services personnel at the scene said the bodies showed relatively few burn injuries. Officials said the fire itself was not believed to have been particularly intense, but thick black smoke rapidly spread through the building, creating severe breathing difficulties.
A state Fire Services official said the incident had raised serious questions about the building’s ventilation arrangements. The official also pointed to extremely narrow entry and exit points, which may have made it difficult for occupants to identify and reach safe escape routes after the premises filled with smoke.
A Kolkata Police officer said authorities initially believed the fire had broken out in a single hotel. It was later found that the building housed multiple hotels and guest houses, each operating with limited fire-safety facilities.
“Each floor of the building housed a hotel or a guest house, with extremely small rooms and narrow passages,” the officer said, adding that the fire originated in a hotel on the third floor. Although the flames were reportedly not intense, the smoke gradually engulfed the entire building, leaving occupants struggling to find their way out.
Local residents said the Mirza Ghalib Street area has several budget hotels that accommodate tourists from different parts of India and abroad. A local medicine shop owner said many visitors from neighbouring Bangladesh stay in the area while travelling to Kolkata for medical treatment, raising the possibility that some of the victims could be Bangladeshi nationals. Their identities, however, have not been officially established.
BJP local leader Santosh Pathak alleged that several hotels in the area had been operating after illegal conversions of residential properties into commercial establishments.
He also alleged that structural alterations, including removal or weakening of pillars to create additional rooms, had compromised the building and narrowed its passageways. The allegations are likely to be examined as part of the investigation into the fire and the building’s safety compliance.
Authorities are expected to investigate the fire’s cause, the building’s occupancy and structural status, fire-safety arrangements, ventilation and the legality of the hotels operating from the premises.
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