MS Dhoni and his Jharkhand teammates, participating in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in New Delhi, had to be rescued in the early morning of Friday after fire broke out in Welcome Hotel, Dwarka, where the players were staying.
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All the Jharkhand players and the support staff were immediately taken to Palam grounds, and accommodated there. Fire tenders rushed to the hotel, and the blaze was brought under control around at 7:30 am. No casualties have been reported so far.
The team's kit has got burned completely, and Jharkhand's semifinal encounter against Bengal, which was scheduled for Friday, has been postponed. It will now be played on Saturday. Jharkhand batsman Ishank Jaggi opened up about the fire, which spread to many other rooms as well.
"We were to assemble in the lobby at 7:30am as we usually do before a game, but at 7, I was asked to stay back in the room by Pratyush Singh as there was lot of fire and smoke at the ground floor lobby," he told ESPNcricinfo.
"It spread quite quickly and when we finally got out of our seventh floor rooms, all we could see around us was smoke. It was so thick that we couldn't even see the far end of the lobby."
Jaggi thought that the fire was a small one, considering that the fire alarm did not even go off, but he realised it was a lucky escape after they got out of the hotel.
"What added to our concern was the fire alarm didn't go off, so we assumed it to be a small fire accident. But when there was a strong burning smell, we were asked to vacate immediately. The seriousness of it struck us only when we got out. The smoke spread to our rooms as well. That is when we were asked to run down the stairs."
Delhi: Fire had broken out in store in Dwarka's Welcome hotel complex. MS Dhoni and Jharkhand team who were staying there evacuated safely pic.twitter.com/8OIbd7x3Cl
— ANI (@ANI_news) March 17, 2017
