Turned into a tinderbox: Deadly fire at Kolkata’s Florence Mansion

It was a few minutes after 2 a.m. on a Wednesday (August 19, 2026) when Izaj Ahmed, 30, woke up to a pungent smell in his cramped hotel room. Thick smoke was billowing through the thin gap of the plywood door of his room at Hotel Shikha Inn, 15B, Mirza Ghalib Street, in the heart of Kolkata.“When I opened the door of my room to look outside, it was completely filled with smoke,” Ahmed said. He tried to take the staircase but found that the narrow iron stairs had turned red-hot. Wasting no time, he jumped from the balcony of the third floor and landed on the asbestos roof of a shop. He remained stuck there until the fire brigade rescued him. Ahmed was one of around 60 people rescued on August 19.The fire was brought under control in less than two hours, but by then it had claimed nine lives. Those who died could not find their way out of Florence Mansion, the five-storeyed building that houses eight hotels, seven offices, two residential apartments, and two shops.Also Read | Bengal hotel fire: Two owners held, death toll rises to nineWhen he checked into the hotel, Ahmed, a resident of Birbhum’s Rampurhat, a regular in Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital, didn’t give it a second thought. “I have stayed in different hotels in this area before. Hotels are affordable here and the area is easily accessible in the city. But a fire was something I could never imagine,” Ahmed said, adding that had he not jumped out of the building, he would have died too.The headquarters of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on S.N. Banerjee Road are less than 500 metres from Florence Mansion. The fire brigade headquarters at 13D, Mirza Ghalib Street, Kolkata, are a few doors away. Yet the investigation so far has revealed glaring gaps in the fire audit. People gather on Mirza Ghalib Street, Kolkata, after a fire broke out on the second floor of Florence Mansion, killing nine persons in Hotel Shikha Inn, including a four-year-old child. | Photo Credit: PTI Forty-eight hours before, there had been another fire at a hotel in the temple town of Tarapith, about 224 kilometres from Kolkata. Nine persons died. Last year, on April 30, a fire at Rituraj Hotel in the densely populated Mechua area of Kolkata claimed 14 lives.As in the fire at Shikha Inn in Kolkata and Bideshini Hotel in Tarapith, the deaths at Rituraj Hotel were due to suffocation. The narrow lanes of Burrabazar area made rescue difficult like in the fire at Shikha Inn and Bideshini Hotel.Since 2025, there have been five major fires across West Bengal, three in hotels and two in godowns. Collectively, they have killed 65 people, many of whom were migrant workers and pilgrims.Dead and survivedWhen Florence Mansion was constructed, it was a residential complex, mostly housing Kolkata’s Sindhi community. Many owners sold their apartments as the locality turned from a residential area into a commercial centre.The ground floor of the building reveals tangled wires and exposed electricity meters and MCB boxes. Next to the meter boxes is a spiral iron staircase leading to the dense, dark floors where sunlight struggles to reach even in the morning. A musty smell hangs over the damp interiors. Now, the building has been sealed. Police officials at the site where a fire broke out at a five-storey building in Kolkata. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Many of the survivors complained that no fire alarm was sounded when the fire broke out. When the residents were screaming for help, neither could they find fire extinguishers, nor did any staff member show up. There was also no emergency exit, and the main gate was locked, trapping those inside.A former staff member of the hotel, Muhammed Jamal, who now works at a different hotel in the same area, said that fire extinguishers are never installed in hotels in the area, where the room rents are about ₹1,500.Mohammed Mushifiqur Rehman, who came to Kolkata from Dhaka, said for people who arrive from Bangladesh, there isn’t much time to think about safety.“There are various agents who approach us the moment we arrive. They start dragging our luggage to take us to some hotel which has a reasonable rate,” Rehman said. He added that since many people from Bangladesh come to Kolkata, they get recommendations for hotels in this area from neighbours or relatives.Standing outside the hotel almost six hours after the fire, he said that he had met a family the previous evening. All had died in the fire.Rehman was referring to the death of four family members of a Bangladeshi journalist Debashish Dutta, 39. Dutta, his wife Afsana Shimmin, 27, their two-year-old son Shranashish Dutta, and Debashish’s father-in-law Akram Ali, 74, died in the fire at Shikha Inn.Of the nine who died in the fire, seven were Bangladeshi nationals; the other two were residents of Bihar and West Bengal.The family arrived in India on August 3 and travelled to Bengaluru for Shimmin’s treatment. Ali, meanwhile, stayed back in Kolkata. After returning, they checked into Hotel Shikha Inn only two days before the incident and had been planning to shop at New Market before leaving India. The family’s only surviving member is an eight-year-old daughter in Dhaka.Investigation and crackdownThe preliminary investigation has revealed that the fire broke out due to a short circuit on the second floor of the hotel, most likely from an air conditioner. Those who died were staying on the second floor and could not use the staircase to escape.Kolkata Police has set up a five-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by the Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Department to probe the incident. The FIR has been filed under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligence, and under sections of the West Bengal Fire Services Act.On August 20, the police arrested the leaseholder of the hotel, Abu Zafar, and the manager of Jaapon Hotel located inside Florence Mansion. Two days later, the owner of Shikha Inn, Bireswar Mitra, was arrested in Behala, said Kunal Aggarwal, Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Crime). During questioning, the owner confessed that he had paid ₹1 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh to local touts and syndicates to secure the licence to run the hotel.“The hotel had nine rooms. He used to charge ₹1,300 to ₹1,500 per day per room. However, the rooms were converted from a residential flat using flammable plywood partitions and false ceilings. He also never held a valid fire NOC (No Objection Certificate) for the property,” said a police source. After the fire exposed glaring gaps in fire safety measures, the administration swung into action. Ten days later, at least 52 hotels have been shut down by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Fire Department in the area for allegedly failing to meet fire safety norms. Fearing inspections, many hotels closed their doors temporarily, while over 200 show-cause notices have also been issued to various hotels.Tarapith hotel fireAbout 4.30 a.m. on August 17, a fire broke out an the ground floor of Hotel Bideshini in Tarapith when most of the guests were asleep. Investigations have revealed that there were two exits from the hotel, but many boarders of the hotel could not find the back door.The hotel’s power supply had been cut off by the fire, and in the darkness, it was difficult for them to find their way.Out of the nine who died, four were from West Bengal and five from Garo Hills, Meghalaya. Thirty-four were rescued.The hotel advertises itself as "located beside the Police Station in Tarapith”. Birbhum Superintendent of Police Vidit Raj Bhundesh said the fire might have been caused by a short circuit on the ground floor and later spread across a few other floors. “The front gate of the hotel was closed and only a back gate was open due to which the guests could not exit,” the police officer said.As in the case of the Kolkata hotel fire, the administration started issuing notices to hotels in Birbhum after the fire. The police arrested a father-son duo who were running the hotel. Up to 15 hotels were given closure notices in Tarapith. Here too, hotels operated without licences, had minimal fire safety infrastructure and lacked demarcated entry and exit points, police said.A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report released in 2021 said West Bengal recorded 591 accidental fire incidents in 2019, resulting in 528 deaths and 12 injuries. West Bengal ranked ninth in the country in the number of incidents, and the audit exposed the gap between fire risks and State preparedness.The CAG report pointed out a 68% shortfall in fire stations and 74% of fire operator posts were vacant. The report also found that response times during fires in both urban and rural areas were high.Political playThe fires at Shikha Inn and Bideshini Hotel occurred after a political change in West Bengal this year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was quick to blame the previous Trinamool Congress regime which had been in power for 15 years, for the disasters.Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari called the fire a “grim reminder of the legacy of negligence left behind by the previous regime”. He said the government was working tirelessly to “undo the damage of that era and to enforce the safety standards that should have been in place all along”.Former Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim, who is now with the rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress, said that the BJP government cannot put the blame on the previous government after 100 days in office.Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Agnimitra Paul surveyed hotels in the New Market area. On August 22, when the Minister was inspecting hotels, she reprimanded a homeless woman, Sita Mullick alias Rashida, on a footpath in the Park Street area. The woman was heating milk over a stove to feed her grandson.“Heating milk for a child on the pavement? In Park Street? Who gave you permission to set up your household here?” Paul was heard saying in a video, suggesting that such an action could lead to a fire.The incident took a political turn as Opposition parties, including former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, came out in support of the woman. In a damage-control attempt, Adhikari met the homeless woman and assured her that she would be provided with accommodation and would not have to stay on a footpath.The economic burden of the lossFor the past several years, hotels, guest houses, and inns across the 1-km stretch around New Market, encompassing Marquis Street, Sudder Street, Mirza Ghalib Street and Free School Street have served thousands of Bangladeshi nationals who visit Kolkata for medical tourism and shopping. After the fall of Bangladesh’s Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024, relations between the two countries have been strained. It was only in the last week of June 2026 that India resumed issuing tourist visas to Bangladeshi nationals, ending a suspension that lasted nearly two years.Several hotel owners in the area were overjoyed. Now, they fear an uncertain future. “We are a fire-compliant hotel with all necessary licences and precautions. We showed the documents to the commissioner of fire safety. But we were told that since other establishments in the building were not fire-compliant and the building itself was in a high-risk zone, we would not be allowed to accept guests,” a hotel owner on Mirza Ghalib Street said.For past several years, hotels, guest houses, or inns across Marquis Street-Sudder Street-Mirza Ghalib Street-Free School Street belt, over a kilometer-long stretch around New Market, have served to thousands of Bangladeshi nationals who visit Kolkata for medical tourism and for shopping.After the fall of Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024, the relations between the two countries were strained. It was only in the last week of June 2026 that the India resumed issuing tourist visas to Bangladeshi nationals ending a suspension that lasted nearly two years.Several hotel owners also alleged that the fire department had not renewed fire licences of several establishments in the area for the past two years. The owners are planning to meet Ministers in the West Bengal government and approach the Calcutta High Court for a reprieve.