Ghaziabad: Firefighters rescued 18 people trapped inside a hotel in Sahibabad on Tuesday after a major fire broke out on an upper floor of the building, officials said. No casualties were reported in the incident.

Source: IANS via hi INDiA

The blaze broke out at the Banana Tree Hotel & Banquets, located in the Site IV Industrial Area of Sahibabad in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. According to the Fire Department, the control room at the Vaishali fire station received a report of the fire at noon on Tuesday.

Two fire tenders were immediately dispatched from the Vaishali fire station, and additional fire engines were sent from the nearby Sahibabad fire station. Firefighters found that the fire had originated on the fifth floor, where renovation work was in progress, and that the flames were spreading rapidly toward the higher floors at the rear portion of the hotel.

18 people brought out safely as smoke filled the hotel

As thick smoke and flames spread through the premises, one team of firefighters evacuated the people trapped inside while other teams worked to extinguish the fire. The rescue teams managed to bring out all 18 stranded people safely.

Firefighters used the hotel's existing fire-fighting system to lay out hose lines and pumped water from the fire tenders to the upper floors through the stairwells to combat the flames, the Fire Department said.

The reason for the fire was not immediately known. The incident has raised questions about safety protocols and fire-fighting arrangements during the renovation work that was underway at the hotel.

Source: Nation Press