It was a few minutes after 2 a.m. on a Wednesday (August 19, 2026) when Izaj Ahmed, 30, woke up to a pungent smell in his cramped hotel room. Thick smoke was billowing through the thin gap of the plywood door of his room at Hotel Shikha Inn, 15B, Mirza Ghalib Street, in the heart of Kolkata.“When I opened the door of my room to look outside, it was completely filled with smoke,” Ahmed said. He tried to take the staircase but found that the narrow iron stairs had turned red-hot. Wasting no time, he jumped from the balcony of the third floor and landed on the asbestos roof of a shop. He remained stuck there until the fire brigade rescued him. Ahmed was one of around 60 people rescued on August 19.The fire was brought under control in less than two hours, but by then it had claimed nine lives. Those who died could not find their way out of Florence Mansion, the five-storeyed building that houses eight hotels, seven offices, two residential apartments, and two shops.Also Read | Bengal hotel fire: Two owners held, death toll rises to nineWhen he checked into the hotel, Ahmed, a resident of Birbhum’s Rampurhat, a regular in Kolkata, West Bengal’s capital, didn’t give it a second thought. “I have stayed in different hotels in this area before. Hotels are affordable here and the area is easily accessible in the city. But a fire was something I could never imagine,” Ahmed said, adding that had he not jumped out of the building, he would have died too.The headquarters of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on S.N. Banerjee Road are less than 500 metres from Florence Mansion. The fire brigade headquarters at 13D, Mirza Ghalib Street, Kolkata, are a few doors away. Yet the investigation so far has revealed glaring gaps in the fire audit.