Death toll rises to three in Lahore hotel fire

Lahore, Jan 25 (PTI) The death toll climbed to three on Sunday in a fire incident at a multi-story hotel building where a college function was underway in Lahore city of Punjab province in Pakistan, officials

said here.

Over 100 students were present during the college function that was underway in the basement of the 17-storey hotel in Lahore’s Gulberg area near Gaddafi Stadium when the fire broke out on Saturday.

According to the Punjab Emergency Department Rescue 1122, a college function was underway in the basement of the 17-storey hotel — Indigo — in Lahore’s Gulberg area near Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday when fire broke out.

Even as one person had died and five others injured, the firefighters reached the basement and launched a rescue operation that was completed late on Saturday night.

“We evacuated 275 occupants from the building, including 100 college students and crew of different airlines. Three people died because of burn injuries and seven sustained injuries. They have been shifted to a hospital,” Rescue 1122 spokesperson Farooq Ahmad said in a statement on Sunday.

“The basement was the most affected with heavy smoke posing serious challenges for firefighters and rescuers,” he said and added initial findings suggested that the fire may have been caused by a gas leak in the basement.

A week ago, a deadly inferno erupted at Gul Plaza in Karachi city and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished. The fire that started on January 17 has so far claimed 72 lives. PTI MZ NPK NPK