Tourist dies, 2 more injured in fire in Shimla bed and breakfast

Shimla: Three tourists from Maharashtra sustained burn injuries, one of whom died, following a fierce fire in a private accommodation offering bed and breakfast in the Kachighati area of Shimla city, police said on Saturday.

All three tourists from Maharashtra were sleeping when the fire broke out around 11.30 pm on Friday night. While two of them managed to escape, Ritesh, a resident of Koregaon in Maharashtra, was killed in the fire, they said.

Ashish and Avdhoot who were injured in the fire are under treatment at Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital, Shimla. The three of them had come to Shimla on Friday and were staying in the bed and breakfast accommodation.

About half a dozen fire tenders were rushed to the spot and it took the firefighters several hours to douse the flames. However, tourists staying in other rooms were safely rescued. Three rooms of the hotels were engulfed in the fire and there was a loss of property worth lakhs, police said.

Preliminary investigations suggested negligence on the part of the owner and a case under sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 125 (endangering life) of BNS has been registered.

Police said the family members of the deceased have been informed and the body would be handed over to them after the post-mortem is conducted, police said.

The exact cause of the fire is being investigated and fire safety measures in the accommodation are being examined, they said.