Firefighters in Ghaziabad rescued at least 18 people on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, after a fire broke out on an upper floor of the Banana Tree Hotel & Banquets in the Site-4 Industrial Area of Sahibabad. No casualties were reported, according to the fire department accounts carried by multiple Indian news outlets, and crews brought the blaze under control after a large multi-station response.
- At least 18 people were rescued from 12 rooms at the Banana Tree Hotel in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, on Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
- The fire started on the fifth floor, where renovation work was under way, and spread to higher floors with thick smoke.
- Nine fire tenders and a hydraulic platform were deployed, and no casualties were reported; the cause of the fire was not yet known.
The alarm reached the Vaishali fire station control room on Tuesday afternoon, and the first engines from Vaishali were dispatched immediately, with additional units following from Sahibabad. As the scale of the fire became clear, more tenders were called in from Vaishali, Kotwali and Sahibabad, bringing the total response to nine fire tenders plus a hydraulic platform.
Fire on the Fifth Floor
When crews arrived, they found the blaze had started on the fifth floor at the rear of the hotel, where renovation work was in progress. Flames and thick smoke were spreading toward the higher floors, and the upper part of the building quickly filled with smoke. That combination — an upper-floor fire, renovation work in progress and smoke moving through the building — shaped the whole operation: firefighters had to fight the fire and get people out at the same time.
Crews used the hotel’s own internal firefighting system to run hose lines up the stairwells, while other teams worked from outside. One team concentrated on rescuing people trapped in rooms engulfed by flames and smoke, while another surrounded the building from three sides to stop the fire spreading further. Firefighters also used exhaust fans to clear smoke from inside the hotel and broke glass windows in rooms to improve ventilation, a step that helped both the rescue and the firefighting.
Rescue From 12 Rooms
The people rescued were in 12 rooms affected by the fire and smoke. Reports on the exact number rescued varied slightly between outlets — most reports put the figure at 18, while one report put it at 20 — but all agreed on the central outcome: everyone inside was brought out safely and no deaths or injuries were reported. The Chief Fire Officer, along with the officers in charge at the Vaishali and Sahibabad fire stations, reached the scene to oversee the rescue and relief operations.
Firefighters used the hotel’s internal firefighting system to run hose lines up the stairwells, while other teams worked from outside to stop the fire spreading further.
The rescue is a reminder of how quickly an upper-floor fire can turn dangerous even when the fire itself is contained to part of a building. Smoke, rather than flames alone, is often what traps people in rooms and corridors, and in Sahibabad it was the smoke filling the upper floors that made the evacuation urgent. The use of the building’s internal system, the stairwell hose lines and the ventilation work all mattered as much as the number of tenders on the ground.
Questions the Investigation Will Have to Answer
Authorities are expected to investigate the cause of the fire and to assess whether safety standards were followed while renovation work was under way. At the time of reporting, the cause had not been established, and no finding had been made about how the fire started or whether any safety lapse contributed to its spread. Those questions matter beyond this one hotel: renovation work in an occupied building brings together ignition risks, dust and materials, altered escape routes and fire systems that may be partly out of service, and investigators will need to establish what was in place on the fifth floor on Tuesday.
- Fire at the Banana Tree Hotel, Site-4 Industrial Area, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, on Tuesday, October 27, 2026
- At least 18 people rescued from 12 rooms; no casualties reported
- Nine fire tenders and a hydraulic platform deployed from Vaishali, Sahibabad and Kotwali
- Fire started on the fifth floor, where renovation work was under way; cause not yet known
The incident also sits in a wider pattern of fire emergencies in the Delhi region this week. A terrace fire at North Block in Delhi was fought with six tenders and caused no casualties, as reported in our coverage of the North Block terrace fire, while a building collapse in Delhi’s Harsh Vihar area killed a father and son, as reported in our report on the Harsh Vihar building collapse. Each incident is different, but together they underline why fire safety, building maintenance and emergency readiness in busy urban buildings keep returning to the news.
What to Watch Next
What happens next is the investigation: the cause of the fire, the findings on safety arrangements during the renovation work, and any action the fire department or local authorities take as a result. Until those findings are published, the confirmed facts remain the rescue itself — at least 18 people brought out safely from 12 rooms, no casualties reported, and a fire on the fifth floor of a hotel under renovation that was brought under control by a nine-tender response.