Kolkata Fire and Emergency Safety Guide

In April 2025, 14 people died in the Rituraj Hotel fire at Mechuapatti in Burrabazar, most of them from smoke, and a few jumped from upper floors. In August 2026, nine guests died at a hotel on Mirza Ghalib Street, right next to the fire brigade headquarters, where survivors spoke of a narrow entrance and no proper fire safety equipment.

In December 2011, a fire that started in the basement of AMRI Hospital, Dhakuria spread smoke through the wards, and the toll was put at about 90. Most of the dead were patients, many of them in the ICU, who died of suffocation rather than burns.

In January 2026, a night fire gutted warehouses at Nazirabad near Anandapur, and officials first put the toll at 21 or more. On 21 February 2026, the toll was put at 27, with nine identifications still pending. Fire officials said the godown had no fire safety clearance, and workers were sleeping among plastic flowers, wood and cloth when it started.

Burrabazar and Canning Street have narrow lanes and multi-storey markets packed with stock. In September 2018, the Bagree Market fire burned for more than 30 hours and destroyed over 400 shops, while firefighters struggled with locked shutters and short water supply.

KMC keeps a ward-by-ward list of waterlogging pockets because heavy rain floods the same roads year after year. On 23 September 2025, 251.4 mm of rain fell in less than a day, and nine people in the city died of electric shock.

When Cyclone Amphan passed Kolkata in May 2020, winds reached 133 kmph at Dum Dum, and a KMC official said almost 200 trees fell across the city. Power cuts and mobile and internet outages hit large parts of Kolkata.

On Maha Saptami evening, 17 October 2026, a crush at the exit gate of the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata killed 19 people and injured 25, and police have pointed to heavy rain, a swelling crowd, narrow gates and poor crowd control. Seven people, including puja committee office-bearers, have been arrested, and on 21 October the state formed a six-member team to investigate. Before you go into a pandal, find the way out and skip it at peak hours if there is only one narrow gate; if rain starts, step back instead of pushing in, and if the crowd presses, move sideways towards the edge with your arms up in front of your chest.