The fire broke out at a hotel near the railway station and quickly spread to the adjacent hotel
Lucknow Police arrested 2 people and ordered a magisterial inquiry into the fire at two hotels which killed five and critically injured four.
The fire broke out at a hotel, located in the busy area of Charbagh near the railway station, at around 6 am on Tuesday, and quickly spread to the adjacent hotel.
"We have arrested two persons -- Pankaj and Rajkumar. One of them was a manager in a hotel, while the other was a security guard on duty when the accident took place. In the FIR, the owners, managers and guards on duty of both hotels were named," Superintendent of Police (Lucknow West) Vikas Chand Tripathi told news agency PTI.
Pankaj, the supervisor at Hotel Virat and Rajkumar, a guard, were on duty at Hotel SSJ International at the time of the incident, police said.
An official of Lucknow district administration said, "The deceased have been identified as Mehar (one-and-half year-old) from Kanpur, Santosh Mane (35) from Pune, Priyansh Sharma (40) from Aligarh, Ganesh Prasad (45) from Patna and another unidentified woman."
District Magistrate of Lucknow Kaushal Raj Sharma said, "A magisterial inquiry has been set up for the Charbagh hotel fire incident. The city magistrate will conduct inquiry into the reasons which led to the incident and submit their report in a month.
"Teams will be made in two days comprising the additional city magistrate, circle officer, municipal corporation, Lucknow Development Authority and Lucknow Electricity Supply Administration. The team will inspect the area and inquiry will be conducted vis-a-vis hotels, restaurants, bars and nursing homes," he said.
He said the team will look into whether the buildings were made according to plan and had no objection certificate from the various civic bodies, and whether they had the permissible electrical load, which is required to run their whole complex.
Additional Director General, Lucknow zone, has been directed to inquire into the incident, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (law and order) Praveen Kumar had said on Tuesday that the map of one of the hotels was not approved, while there was no staff to handle fire fighting equipment in the neighbouring hotel.
Cases have been registered against the owners of both hotels under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, he had said.