Varanasi: A tourist suffered burns, while 11 others fell ill due to suffocation after fire engulfed a hotel in the Nai Sadak area under Luxa police station on Sunday night.According to reports, chaos ensued as Hotel HM International went up in flames around 2:40 am, with guests trapped inside. Locals rushed in and rescued people on lower floors.On being alerted, fire tenders reached the spot and started a rescue operation. ACP (Dashaswamedh) Atul Anjan Tripathi said that apart from extinguishing the fire, equal focus was on safely evacuating people.Before the firefighters could succeed in rescuing the guests, 35-year-old Atharv of Pune suffered burn injuries, the ACP said. He said that with 40% burns, he was being treated at the trauma centre of BHU.Another 11 persons, including Pradeep Kumar, 36, of Rewari (Haryana), his son Shivay, 7, daughter Shanvi, 5, Sahil, 22, of Mumbai, Shubham Bharati, 27, of Maharashtra, Prem Yadav, 30, of Azamgarh, Geeta, 36, of Mau, Shubham Kumar, 32, of Ghazipur, Ujjwal, 23, of Jahanabad (Bihar), Suraj Yadav, 27, of Jharkhand, Shrikant Shrikhande, 37, and Abhishek Yadav, 35, of Sholapur (Maharashtra), fell ill due to suffocation caused by thick fumes spread in the rooms, galleries and lobby of the hotel.The ACP said that except Atharv, others were discharged from the hospital after their condition improved.Preliminary investigation suggested that a short circuit led to the fire.
