By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
At around 10 PM on Wednesday, Nainital was bustling with tourist activities when all of a sudden smoke began bellowing from the historic 150 year old London House, a famous building, at Mallital.
Within the next few hours, the whole building was engulfed in fire and later reduced to ashes with the fire brigade failing to control the inferno despite all efforts.
Sadly, a lone old lady who was inside the building died of burns. An inquiry has been ordered to find why the fire brigade failed to control the fire.
Shanta Bisht who lost her life in the fire was the sister of famous historian and environmentalist Dr Ajay Rawat.
A fire tender which reached the spot exhausted all its water without dousing the fire. The fire tender was sent back for refilling but when it came back the fire had spread in the entire building.
Later, more than 40 personnel of various agencies were engaged in the fire extinguishing operation to control the fire with a large number of tourists witnessing the entire incident.
The Old London House was built in 1863, when Nainital was developed as the summer capital of the United Province. It was one of the many magnificent buildings built in the lake resort during the British era.
The woman’s son Nikhil Bisht, who worked in Bollywood as art director, kept screaming for help to save his mother before he fell unconscious.