LUCKNOW: A major fire blazed through a three-storey commercial building in a posh Lucknow neighbourhood on a busy Monday afternoon, leaving at least 15 people, mostly students, dead and seven injured, officials said.
Many of the victims were trapped on the second floor of the building, located on Usha Mehta Marg in Aliganj in north Lucknow, where students were attending classes at an animation centre. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
Eyewitnesses said several people jumped out of the building, which was completely gutted in the fire. The structure also housed a pet clinic from where several animals in distress were rescued.
The victims had to be brought out from the terrace of an adjoining building, where rescue teams had to drill two large openings into the affected building to gain access while the fire was still raging.
Panic-stricken friends and family members of victims, who rushed to the site after receiving frantic calls for help from inside, pleaded with rescuers to save their kin.
Nineteen fire tenders, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and other rescue personnel were deployed to douse the blaze reported at around 3 pm and search for survivors. The firefighting team used a hydraulic platform vehicle to control the blaze.
"A total of 22 people were brought to the Trauma Centre of King George's Medical University (KGMU) following the incident. Of them, 15 were declared brought dead, while five injured persons were admitted for treatment and their condition was stable," King George Medical University (KGMU) PRO Prof K K Singh told PTI.
"Due to two children jumping, they suffered back injuries, so they are also being treated after CT scans and other procedures," said Dr Anil Agrawal, medical superintendent at the trauma centre.
PTI witnessed people being taken out during the rescue operation, with some bodies being carried in body bags and others wrapped in blankets.
Visuals from the scene also showed some people rappelling down the wires to escape the blaze.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cut short his visit to Aligarh and reached the site to review the situation. He later visited the injured at the hospital.
Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who had reached the spot as the rescue operation was underway, said a high-level inquiry had been ordered into the incident to ascertain the cause of the fire and determine how it occurred.
"Strict action will be taken so that such incidents do not happen in future," he said.
He said that the children had come during summer holidays to learn animation at the centre.
"The fire broke out suddenly. It was an animation centre. While there is no immediate clarity about the sequence of events, it seems that the children ran towards the back side when the fire broke out… but they couldn’t survive," he said
With tears welling in his eyes, the deputy chief minister said he had seen 14 bodies at the spot. "They were our children. It is a very tragic incident," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, Defence Minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh and others expressed anguish at the loss of lives. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi sent condolence messages over the incident.
PM Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF to the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000.
The UP CM also declared an ex-gratia assistance of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of those who died in the fire and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.
Firefighters and National Disaster Response Force personnel were conducting a room-to-room search inside the premises till late in the evening.
Senior officials, including Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjay Prasad, Director General of Police Rajeev Krishna and Lucknow Police Commissioner Amrendra Sengar, also reached the spot to monitor the rescue operation.
This fire incident in Lucknow comes within weeks of a massive blaze in a south Delhi restaurant that killed over 20 people.
The building is located in the premium residential Aliganj neighbourhood dotted by commercial spaces including coaching centres, cafes, and within walking distance of the Purania market.
A police official said the local police reached the spot immediately after receiving information and teams from nearby fire stations were rushed with water tenders and firefighting equipment. Later, other agencies also joined the rescue operation.
Visuals from the scene showed firefighting teams wearing safety gear climbing the building using ladders from outside. Another team was seen attempting to enter from the adjoining building of similar height by creating an access point from the upper side, while other teams continued efforts to douse the flames.
A local told PTI Videos during the rescue operation, "When I arrived at the spot, I saw smoke billowing from the building. Some students had already been rescued, and 4-5 students managed to come out of the building."
"Our only hope is that everyone comes out safely. The firefighters took some time to reach the spot," he said.
Another local said, "The fire may have been triggered by a spark. Seven to eight students jumped from the building to save themselves."
Outside the building, scenes of anguish and helplessness unfolded as parents and relatives rushed to the spot after receiving distress calls from those trapped.
Distraught men and women, apparently guardians and relatives of the victims, were seen standing near the site and urging authorities to allow them to enter the building when the firefighting and rescue operations were underway.
"Mujhe jaane do apne bete ke paas (Let me go to my son)," one distraught woman cried repeatedly, pleading with officials as rescue operations continued.
Eyewitnesses said many tried to break the building's glass panes to allow thick smoke to escape and create possible routes for those trapped inside. One of the most harrowing moments was captured in visuals showing a student jumping from an upper floor to escape the flames. People below quickly spread a mattress-like object to cushion the fall, following which locals immediately moved the student away from the area and arranged medical assistance.
Some locals were seen rescuing cats from the pet clinic on the ground floor. People living near the affected structure supplied water bottles to firefighters engaged in the rescue operation.
Dhiraj Mehra reached the site after receiving a frantic call from his colleague, Aditya Srivastava, a 3D artist working at the gaming zone on the third floor.
"He called me saying 'bacha lo' (save me), and I rushed to the site," Mehra recalled.
As the rescue operation ended, the tragedy moved from the fire site to the hospitals and mortuary, where families reached to identify their loved ones after their post-mortem.
The bodies of the victims were shifted from the trauma centre at KGMU to the post-mortem house for identification and autopsy procedures. Most of those who lost their lives were young adults, KGMU PRO K K Singh said.
Those deceased were identified as Sagar, Nilesh, Anamika, Sanyam, Anuchha, Sukhmani, Aditya Srivastava, Jyoti, Bhavishya, Abdul Rehman, Suraj Bhaar, Sehjan, Jaynil Chakraborty, Mohammad Ammar and Sumalya, according to a list issued by the hospital.
Additional police personnel were deployed at KGMU and the post-mortem house to manage the situation and assist grieving families.
At the mortuary, scenes of heartbreak unfolded as many people had first rushed to KGMU hoping to find their kin among the injured, only to be directed to the post-mortem facility.
With tearful faces and photographs of their loved ones on mobile phones, family members moved from one official to another, desperately seeking confirmation about their fate.
Neeraj Bora, the local MLA, told PTI that half of the deceased were local residents.
"I think most of them died due to asphyxiation rather than burn injuries," he said, admitting the need to ensure strict safety norms.
"There was no (fire) exit route and this was perhaps the reason why the scale of the tragedy was so big," he said and added that as the local public representative he had been raising the demand for a local fire station.
"This area (Purania in Aliganj) as well as Jankipuram have become a coaching hub and that is why I had been consistently raising demand for a local fire station for the area," the BJP MLA said
Till about 8.30 pm, while the rescue operation was technically over, firefighters were busy working at the site even as a crowd of onlookers from nearby areas kept arriving at the site, some moved to tears.