Kolkata: Among those trapped in the blaze that broke out a little before 2 am in the five-story building housing multiple hotels was a lawyer from Islampur in Uttar Dinajpur. Naushad Ali had travelled to Kolkata with his colleagues Md Halim and Saidul Rehman to attend a hearing at Calcutta High Court. “I was asleep while my two colleagues were talking to each other. I woke up when we heard shouting. When we opened the room door, there was smoke everywhere,” Ali recalled.Within moments, the fourth-floor room became nearly uninhabitable as the temperature rose. “Within minutes, the room became extremely hot and resembled a furnace. As soon as we reopened the door, more smoke came in. It was thick and black, bringing visibility to zero. It was getting difficult to breathe,” said Ali.Faced with the smoke and heat, the trio made a split-second decision to flee their room, prioritizing essential legal documents over personal belongings.“We shut the door and deliberated on what to do next. We unanimously decided to try and go out so we could at least be able to breathe,” Ali said. “We grabbed our wallets, phones, and the HC documents, and went to the adjoining lobby. It was not possible to carry our suitcases or clothing,” he added. In the lobby, the hotel manager and approximately 12 other trapped guests guided the group toward safety. Ali said, “The manager was in the lobby with other boarders. He told us to take a shortcut to the terrace. We acted as directed. There, we were finally able to breathe.”Trapped on the roof, Ali and the other guests waited for nearly 25 minutes before rescue teams managed to reach them. “Firefighters entered, and later brought us down. We stayed on the roof huddled together, but at least we could breathe,” Ali said, adding, “It was a near-death experience.” The administration later relocated the survivors to the nearby Gulisthan Hotel as emergency personnel sealed the damaged premises. “We are not sure about our belongings as the building has been sealed,” Ali said.
