Lucknow Fire: 15 Killed at Training Centre, Four Owners Arrested

A major fire at a three-storey commercial building in Lucknow killed at least 15 people and injured nine on Monday. The blaze broke out around 3 pm at the property on Usha Mehta Marg in Aliganj, which housed an animation centre. Most of the deceased were students who became trapped on the second floor.

Police arrested four joint owners of the building on Monday night, PTI reported. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cut short a scheduled visit to Aligarh to review the disaster response and visit the injured at the hospital.

Desperate Escape and Rescue

Eyewitnesses described chaotic scenes. Rescuers drilled two large openings from the terrace of an adjoining building to access the trapped victims while the fire raged.

"I could hear screams. Some youth used cables to climb down," 17-year-old eyewitness Deva Singh told PTI.

Relatives rushed to the site after receiving calls from inside the burning structure. Aditya Srivastava, a 3D artist trapped at a third-floor gaming zone, made a frantic call to his colleague Dhiraj Mehra. "He called me saying 'bacha lo'," Mehra told PTI. Outside, a distraught mother pleaded with officials during the rescue, crying, "Mujhe jaane do apne bete ke paas."

The blaze also trapped animals at a ground-floor and basement pet facility. Rescuers evacuated most of the 20 to 22 dogs and a dozen cats, though four or five animals died in the basement.

Hospital Updates and Victims

The disaster triggered a massive medical response. Emergency workers brought 22 victims to the King George's Medical University Trauma Centre, where staff declared 15 people dead on arrival.

The deceased were identified as Sagar, Nilesh, Anamika, Sanyam, Anuchha, Sukhmani, Aditya Srivastava, Jyoti, Bhavishya, Abdul Rehman, Suraj Bhaar, Sehjan, Jaynil Chakraborty, Mohammad Ammar, and Sumalya.

"Due to two children jumping, they suffered back injuries," KGMU Medical Superintendent Dr Anil Agrawal said. Medical staff discharged six injured individuals after treatment. Two patients, Lav Preet and Jayant, remain admitted in stable condition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister declared Rs 5 lakh and Rs 50,000, respectively.

Lapses and Revoked Orders

Questions emerged regarding the building's structural safety. Authorities are investigating the regulatory history of the property following the fatal blaze.

"There was no (fire) exit route and this was perhaps the reason why the scale of the tragedy was so big," local MLA Neeraj Bora claimed.

The property was originally allotted to Vijay Kumar in 1980 and sold to Virendra and Surendra Pratap Shukla in 2013. The Lucknow Development Authority approved it for residential use in 2014, according to PTI.

Authorities discovered unauthorised construction and issued a demolition order on May 10, 2016. However, the development authority revoked the order on July 5, 2016, without clear explanation. This incident comes within weeks of a massive restaurant fire in south Delhi that killed over 20 people.