Kolkata: From climbing down a tree to water pipes on the wall, to jumping in a pond and breaking window glasses to prevent suffocation, the survivors of Tarapith hotel fire escaped the blazing inferno in the wee hours of Monday.According to witnesses, the hotel’s emergency exit gate was locked when the fire broke out, while the entry gate near the reception was up in flames. The guests who were on the upper floors of the hotel got trapped and some of them had to take the risk to grab on to the branches of an adjacent tree, about 47ft tall, and climb down to save their lives. A survivor recounted, “We were on the fourth floor and one of the tree’s branches was close to the balcony where we were standing. We clung to the branch and then climbed down. If anything went wrong, I could have fallen to my death.”Had Dum Dum resident Tapan Jyoti Mondal (48) and his wife Piyali not taken the internet’s help to find the local police station and fire brigade’s number, their family members including two minors would not have escaped from the fire on Monday. On Sunday, Mondal’s family put up in two separate rooms on the hotel’s ground floor, just 20-25 m away from the reception, which was said to be the center of the blaze. “Around 4 am the electricity went out and we woke up to a burning smell. As I opened the door, a thick smoke filled our room and in no time the flames spread inside. My two children, 8-year-old and 10-year-old, fainted. It seemed that we would not remain alive for more than 10 minutes,” said Mondal, an employee of a post office near the Airport.Mondal’s mother Kalyani (72) and sister Munmun were in another room. “To save ourselves we rushed to the washroom and broke the glass of the window. My mother and sister also did the same to avoid being suffocated. There was no ventilation in the AC rooms of the hotel. Those who were on the upper floors were climbing down trees or jumping in an adjacent pond. We raised an alarm but no one came forward to our rescue. Finally, we looked for the local police station and fire brigade’s numbers on the internet and asked for their help. In a short time, cops along with the manager of the hotel rescued us,” said Mondal.The family were slated to leave for Shantiniketan around 10am on Monday. “Our survival is just a miracle. Seven people who were in rooms next to us were charred to death. We had offered our prayers at Tarapith earlier. Little did we know that our pilgrimage would have such a tragic end this time,” said Mondal’s wife.Another pilgrim from Cooch Behar Debadrita Dutta who was on the second floor of the hotel escaped by climbing down a pipe. “Having opened the door I found the hotel was up in flames and nothing was visible in the thick smoke. I was feeling suffocated and I rushed out to the balcony. To save my life, I clung on to a pipe on the wall and crawled down,” recounted the woman.Another boarder of the hotel was found crying while desperately looking for her mother, her brother, daughter in law and their two children. The woman stated, “We came from Baduria in North 24 Parganas. I fell on the shattered window glasses, sustained injuries and fainted. Later, I got to know that my mother was rescued and hospitalised. We are poor and we came to Tarapith only because there was a votive.”
