The devastating fire that killed at least 46 people on Thursday night originated from the ground floor and spread quickly through the staircase, which was clogged with gas cylinders. Most of the people died from suffocation after failing to reach the rooftop.
Initially, when the flame was small, it created a lot of smoke. People who managed to leave the building and those on the street came forward with water. One of them came with a hose pipe, while another brought water in a bucket at the entrance of the building which was fast getting engulfed in fire. But the water was not sufficient to put out the fire.
As soon as the fire broke out at around 9:45pm, local people did not wait for the firefighters to come to the spot. They started rescue operations all by themselves.
On the first floor of the building, a woman was standing in front of the window of the Kacchi Bhai restaurant. She was requesting people to rescue her child. At that time, a man was seen climbing a ladder to reach the sunshade and rescue the trapped people. But he could not reach it as the ladder was small.
The people waiting outside asked the woman to throw her daughter through the window so that they could catch her. At one point, someone arranged a longer ladder, and many people who were trapped inside Kacchi Bhai came down by it.
This was the scene outside the seven-storey building that housed at least eight restaurants, including Chumuk—a tea shop on the ground floor from where the fire is believed to have originated.
The firefighters were able to rescue some of the patrons who were eating in other restaurants on the top floors by taking them to the rooftop. Some were trapped inside the eateries when the staircases became a death trap due to the explosion of gas cylinders. Firefighters later rescued 42 people in an unconscious state and sent them to hospitals, where many of them died.
Officials say the commercial building had clearance only for offices. There was no approval for restaurants, showrooms, or anything else. Despite that, the restaurants that were operating in the building were Khana's, Pizza Inn, and Street Oven on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, respectively. Hakka Dhaka was on the sixth floor, and Chumuk was on the ground floor.