Three persons were killed and two others injured when a massive fire broke out in a four-storey hotel at Santacruz (East) in north-west Mumbai on Sunday.
The fire, which originated at 1.17 pm, ripped through rooms located on the first and second floors of the Hotel Galaxy at Prabhat Colony, Santa Cruz (East).
Apart from claiming three lives and leaving two others injured, the fire gutted electric wiring, electric installation, split AC Unit, curtains, mattresses, wooden furniture in the first and second floors of the hotel.
Scores of guests rushed out of the hotel in panic as the blaze spread to the laundry, staircase lobby and threatened to engulf the entire hotel premises.
The fire brigade personnel, who arrived at the hotel with four engines shortly after the fire was noticed, battled with the blaze and extinguished it after more than three hours. They rescued several of the guests trapped inside the hotel rooms. Of the five persons who sustained severe burns, three of them succumbed to the wounds.
Those killed were identified as Rupal Kanaji (28), Kisan M ( 28) and Kantilal Goverdhan Wara (48). The condition of the two injured, who were admitted to a nearby hospital, was described as “stable” by the doctors attending on them.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. “There was a lot of smoke when we arrived at the mishap site. We broke open the windows and rescued the guests trapped inside the hotel rooms. Though there was fire extinguishing equipment inside the hotel, it was quite old. We are investigating whether negligence on the part of the hotel staff led to the mishap,” a senior fire brigade official said.