Kolkata hotel fire kills Bangladeshi medical travellers

A fire tore through a budget hotel in central Kolkata around 2am on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, according to The Independent. The victims were Bangladeshi nationals, including a child, who had travelled to India for medical treatment. Officials said at least 28 people were rescued and six were taken to a nearby hospital.

The building, on Mirza Ghalib Street, reportedly housed several small inns and catered largely to Bangladeshi travellers—an informal cross-border pipeline that grows wherever big-city hospitals attract patients who need to keep costs down. The Independent reports local media speculation that an air conditioner explosion may have triggered the blaze, but authorities were still investigating. Survivors described smoke-filled corridors and a single small gate serving as both entrance and exit, a design choice that turns a minor incident into a mass-casualty event when panic hits. The report also cites allegations that there were no fire escape routes or fire extinguishers, and that the structure was an aging building split across two floors.

The pattern is not limited to one street or one city. The Independent notes a similar hotel fire in West Bengal’s Birbhum district two days earlier that killed pilgrims, and recalls a June blaze in a budget hotel in Delhi that killed more than 20 people, including foreign nationals staying near hospitals. Cheap rooms near major medical centres—priced, the report says, in the low thousands of rupees per night—fill a gap left by formal accommodation markets that do not serve the sick and their families at that price point. When the business model depends on high turnover and minimal investment, safety features become the easiest line item to postpone, especially in buildings where oversight is sporadic and enforcement arrives after headlines.

Police have launched a manhunt for the hotel’s owner, who is reported to have fled. Four fire tenders and a disaster management team were sent to contain the blaze, but by then the building was described as completely burned down.

The victims had crossed a border seeking treatment; they died in the place meant to keep them close to it.