Gujarat: Police, forensic experts visit Jamnagar hotel to conduct probe into fire

Police personnel, forensic experts and officials of the electricity department visited the five-story hotel in Gujarat's Jamnagar city on Friday morning for a detailed investigation into the major fire that had broken out at the place the previous day, an official said.

As many as 27 people were rescued after the blaze erupted at the hotel, located nearly 20 kms from here, on Thursday evening. An investigation has revealed that a short circuit had caused the fire.

"A primary probe revealed that the fire spread in a very short time due to the use of aluminum composite panel or ACP sheets on the facade of the hotel building," Chief Fire Officer of Jamnagar Municipal Corporation, K K Bishnoi, said.

"These are flat panels made up of two aluminum sheets and a polyethylene sheet stuffed in between. A short circuit in the electric panel on the ground floor outside the hotel ignited the fire and it spread quickly because of the material used in these sheets," he added.

A team of Meghpar police station along with officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory and from the electricity department visited the hotel on Friday morning for a detailed investigation and collection of samples for analysis, said sub-inspector Y B Rana.

"The fire started at about 7.30 pm on Thursday and spread quickly. At the time of fire, 27 guests were staying in 18 out of the total 36 rooms," said Rana.

Along with the hotel staff, all the 27 guests were rescued by the police and fire brigade staff, Rana said, adding the incident neither claimed any life, nor left anyone seriously injured. The flames were brought under control around 10.30 pm.

Bishnoi said that although the videos of the incident gave an impression that the entire hotel was destroyed in the fire, it was not the case as only its front portion made of sheets was gutted and there was no major damage to the building.

As many as 18 fire tenders of the Jamnagar civic body along with the firefighting vehicles from Reliance (which has a refinery in the area), Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited (GSFC) and a power plant were rushed to the spot to douse the fire.