Panaji, 7 Dec

At least 100 persons were on the dance floor of a nightclub in North Goa when a fire broke out there, and in an attempt to escape, some of them ran downstairs to its kitchen where they got trapped along with the staff, according to an eyewitness.

While the Goa police said the blaze occurred at the nightclub due to a cylinder blast after midnight on Sunday, some of the eyewitnesses claimed the fire started on the club's first floor, where tourists were dancing.

At least 25 persons were killed in the fire at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, a popular party venue at Arpora village, located 25 km from the state capital Panaji, police said.

Most of the dead were the club's kitchen workers, and included three women, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said. There were “three to four tourists” among those killed, he added.

"There was a sudden commotion as the flames started erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames," Fatima Shaikh, a tourist from Hyderabad, told PTI at Arpora in the wee hours of Sunday.

The nightclub was jam-packed as it was the weekend, and at least 100 persons were on the dance floor, she said.

Shaikh said that after the blaze erupted, some of the tourists started running downstairs and, in the melee, went to the kitchen located on the ground floor. “They (tourists) got trapped there along with other staff. Many managed to run out of the club,” she added.

In no time, the entire club was engulfed in the fire. “There was a temporary construction made up of palm leaves which easily caught fire,” she said.

The nightclub is situated in the backwaters of the Arpora river and has a narrow entry and exit. There was no access for the fire brigades to the club because of the narrow lanes and their tankers had to be parked about 400 metres away from the spot.

A senior officer from the Fire and Emergency Services told PTI that the narrow access made it difficult to reach the spot, which in turn made controlling the blaze a challenging task.

He said that the majority of the deaths were caused by suffocation, as the victims remained trapped on the ground floor.

CM Sawant, who visited the spot after the incident, told reporters that the nightclub had not followed the fire safety norms.

Sawant said he would order an inquiry into the incident, while action would be initiated against the club management and the authorities who allowed the establishment to function.

Arpora-Nagoa panchayat sarpanch Roshan Redkar said the club was run by Saurav Luthra, who had a dispute with his partner.

“There was a dispute between them and they had filed a complaint against each other with the panchayat. We had inspected the premises and found that they did not have the permission to construct the club,” he said.

The panchayat had issued a demolition notice, which was stayed by the officials of the Directorate of Panchayats, Redkar said.

The original owner of the premises had sublet the place to Luthra, he said.

"The fire incident that happened was unfortunate. We have been issuing notices to the establishments that are seen violating the norms. Now, we have to be more vigilant,” he said.

Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, who also visited the site after the incident, said the local panchayats will conduct a fire safety audit of all the nightclubs to ensure such an incident does not recur.

The Calangute panchayat will issue notices to all the nightclubs on Monday, asking them to provide fire safety permissions, the MLA said.

The licenses of clubs not having the necessary permissions will be cancelled, he added.