On Tuesday night, T. Prabhu climbed up a fire rescue ladder, smashed one of the windowpanes of Rituraj Hotel and tried to look in, searching for his two kids and father-in-law.
A thick layer of smoke hung inside Room No. 301 on the second floor. He could not see through the impenetrable haze. The fumes kept gushing out, and Prabhu had to come down. This was around 8.30pm.
Close to midnight, Prabhu traced his father-in-law, S. Muthu Krishnan, 61, to Medical College Kolkata, dead.
Prabhu’s wife, M. Madhumitha, found their kids, P. Diya, 10, and P. Rithan, 3, to NRS Medical College and Hospital, also dead.
“I was visiting Calcutta after 20 years. Since we landed early on Tuesday, we visited the Kalighat temple, Howrah Bridge and the Victoria Memorial. We returned to the hotel around 7pm, and I stepped out with my wife to pick up some dinner. Our train was to leave at 11.45pm from Howrah station,” Prabhu said outside the Kolkata Police morgue in central Calcutta on Wednesday.
“Around 7.45pm, my father-in-law called my wife. He said there was a fire in the hotel. There was smoke, and he could not see. I told him to move out of the room with the kids to the terrace,” he said.
The businessman from Karur in Tamil Nadu rushed to the hotel with his wife and saw fumes billowing out of the hotel’s second and third floors.
He tried telling the firefighters that his kids and father-in-law were inside and he wanted to go in and rescue them. The officials told him to stay away. It would be too risky to plough through the blanket of smoke.
The couple stood helpless for a few minutes outside the hotel, watching a section of residents of the area join firefighters in the rescue. Police barricaded the area, and fire tenders moved in, one after another.
“I spotted a rescue ladder that the firefighters had leaned against the hotel. They were busy with the hydraulic lift that was brought in. I rushed to the ladder and climbed up to the second floor,” Prabhu said.
The father of two reached a window on the floor where their room was.
It was filled with smoke, Prabhu realised. He smashed the glass pane and thick black smoke hit him. He nearly choked.
Some firefighters who spotted the desperate father asked him to come down the ladder. Prabhu waited for a few minutes, tried looking through the smoke, and finally gave up. He came down the ladder and held his wife.
The couple’s kids were nowhere to be found. The father-in-law’s mobile phone kept ringing.
Hours ticked, and the couple frantically looked for the three. None of the firefighters offered any clues.
Much later, when the fire was somewhat under control, a senior police officer told Prabhu that several hotel guests had been shifted to different hospitals. The missing could be in one of them.
The heartbreak came a few hours later.
The family’s journey, which began from Chennai on April 17, ended at hospital morgues on Wednesday.
“We visited several places — Delhi, Sikkim, Darjeeling — before taking a train from New Jalpaiguri station to reach Howrah around 4am on Tuesday,” Prabhu said.