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A pre-dawn fire at the four-storey Bideshini hotel in the temple town of Tarapith, Birbhum district, West Bengal, killed eight people and left several injured on Monday. Five of the deceased belonged to a single family from Meghalaya's South Garo Hills who had travelled to the town for prayers at the Goddess Tara temple. Police detained hotel owner Kalyan Paul and are investigating whether fire-safety norms were followed, with guests alleging a rear exit was found blocked.
A fire broke out in the early hours of Monday at the Bideshini hotel in Tarapith, a temple town in West Bengal's Birbhum district, killing eight people and injuring several others, most of whom were pilgrims staying at the property. The blaze was first noticed around 5 am on the ground floor of the four-storey building, at a time when most guests were asleep, and fire officials said the initial cause appeared to be a short circuit, though a formal probe into the origin remains under way.
Twenty-two fire tenders were deployed to bring the blaze under control, with firefighters taking close to three hours to douse it fully. According to Birbhum District Superintendent of Police Vidit Raj Bundesh, 43 guests were rescued from the hotel during the operation, while the injured were shifted to Rampurhat Government Medical College and Hospital for treatment. Though the fire originated on the ground floor and smoke reportedly reached upper storeys, the flames themselves remained largely confined to the lower floors, which authorities said limited the overall casualty count.
Among the eight deceased were five members of a single family from Shibbari village in South Garo Hills, Meghalaya, who had travelled to Tarapith to offer prayers at the Goddess Tara temple. Police said the family had been staying on the fifth floor, an area the fire had not reached, but that they had attempted to descend the staircase during the panic and were caught in the blaze on the ground floor. The victims included five adults, one woman and two children aged eight and ten. The remaining three victims were residents of Alipurduar district in North Bengal.
Police detained hotel owner Kalyan Paul shortly after the incident and are examining whether the property's firefighting systems were functional and whether fire-safety regulations had been complied with. Several guests alleged that an exit door at the rear of the building had been found closed, preventing them from escaping through that route. Paul, in his account to authorities, maintained that the hotel had no structural shortcomings and that an emergency exit did exist at the back of the building, adding that staff had switched off the electricity supply as soon as the fire was spotted, but that guests were unable to locate the rear exit or the reception area amid the smoke and darkness, prompting many to be caught in the fire while attempting to flee.
The incident occurred as Tarapith was witnessing a large influx of devotees, with thousands having gathered at the temple a day earlier to mark the final Monday of the Bengali month of Shravan, considered auspicious for worship of the goddess. With further large gatherings expected in the town for the upcoming Kaushiki Amavasya festival, authorities have constituted a special team to review fire-safety compliance across hotels in the area, given the scale of pilgrim footfall the town typically sees during major religious occasions. The investigation into the Tarapith fire continues, with police examining both the technical cause of the blaze and the adequacy of the hotel's safety infrastructure.
Source PTI
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