VIJAYAWADA: Over 30 people at the Covid care centre being run at Hotel Swarna Palace in the city had a harrowing experience after the first two floors of the hotel went up in flames, reportedly due to a short circuit, in the early hours of Sunday.
The inmates rushed out of their rooms only to find the corridors blocked with thick smoke. Their screams for help did not evoke any response as the hotel staff were themselves finding ways to escape.
Pawan Sai Krishna, a survivor, said timely response from police and fire personnel saved his life. “I stayed in room number 307.
"Around 3.50 am, there was fire, and smoke engulfed the corridors. I tried to go to the corridor, but could not. I did not know where to go, so I returned to my room, broke open the windows and screamed for help,” he said. Fortunately, police and fire service personnel rushed to the spot and rescued him.
“It was a very scary experience. I do not know how Ramesh Hospitals allotted us this hotel for quarantine. It was totally confusing and one does not know where one has to go,” he said.
At the government hospital morgue, a relative of victim M Ramesh was overheard describing to a family member the experience of a survivor he had heard.
According to him, a middle-aged man quarantined at Swarna Palace tried to go to the ground floor to escape, but could not. As the staff could not help him either, he went back to his room, stood on the windowsill and screamed for help. G Ratan, a housekeeping employee of the hotel and a survivor himself, said: “My friend Krishna and I tried to go to the ground floor from the third floor, but went back and sat on the terrace due to the fire. Krishna was terrified and jumped from the first floor. He was badly injured. We don’t know what happened to him.”
Some who happened to be in the area volunteered to help despite knowing that the mishap took place at a Covid care centre. Munna, an auto-rickshaw driver, was about to reach an auto stand near the hotel when he saw it was up in flames.
He and three other auto drivers rushed there only to see people shouting for help from their windows. “We helped three persons who jumped from the first floor,” Munna said.