Jharkhand team escaped safely after a fire broke out at a hotel in Dwarka

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his Jharkhand teammates were evacuated safely after a fire broke out in their hotel in Dwarka in Delhi on Friday morning.

The fire broke out at about 6 a.m. on Friday morning, shortly before the team was supposed to leave for its Vijay Hazare Trophy semi-final match with Bengal, to be played at the Air Force ground in Palam.

Dhoni and his teammates were having breakfast at the team hotel, ITC Welcome, when they were evacuated. Around 540 guests were staying at the hotel, according to police sources.

“Yes, it was scary as a fire broke out early in the morning. We were evacuated and brought to the ground,” Jharkhand coach Rajeev Kumar said.

However the match has been postponed till Saturday since the team’s clothes and equipment were left in the hotel when they left.

The match has now been rescheduled at Ferozshah Kotla on Saturday after match referee Sanjay Verma announced the postponement.

Both teams were at the ground but since the Jharkhand players were also mentally disturbed, the BCCI had to give them a day’s time to get into a proper frame of mind.

“When we were having breakfast at the restaurant…suffocating smell of the smoke alarmed us. We ran for our lives ,” a Jharkhand player told.

“A call was received around 6.30 a.m. about a fire breaking out at Welcome Hotel. Thirty fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was doused by 9.45 a.m. Cooling operations are on,” said a senior official from Delhi Fire Services.

“A fire broke out in the shopping mall, adjacent to the hotel. In keeping with our safety and security guidelines, as a precautionary measure, we evacuated all our guests. There were no casualties recorded at the hotel,” confirmed the official spokesperson of the hotel.

Police said that the fire broke out in a showroom. Further investigation is underway to ascertain the cause of the fire.