Suspicious movement identified soon after Bagree Market fire breakout, efforts to douse pocket blaze still underway after 85 hours

According to reports, a local man recorded the video on his mobile immediately after the fire started and the suspected movement of four youths were captured on the footage.

A city police official said that police were trying to identify the four youths and they would be questioned.

"It was captured on the video that two youths ran to escape the scene and two others flee by a motorcycle when a large number of people were seen moving towards the fire and trying to call police or fire services," a Kolkata Police official told IBNS.

"Movements of these four youths, who were spotted standing very close to the source of the flames underneath Bagree Market during the fire outbreak, were very suspicious and after identifying them, we will quiz the four men," the official added.  

Meanwhile, more than 30 fire tenders, hundreds of firefighters and personnel from Disaster Management Group (DMG) and state civil defense are engaged in dousing pocket fires on several floors of six-storey Bagree Market, even 85 hours after the outbreak.

"The fire has been arrested and we have found neither fresh flames nor black smoke from the building since Wednesday morning," a fire services official told IBNS.

"Our efforts to contain a large number of pocket fires and to cool down the building are currently underway and it would take more hours to complete the entire firefighting operation here," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday late night, fresh flames along with black smoke leapt out from the second floor of Bagree Market and fire crew doused the blaze in few hours.

Due to a heavy heat, several cracks have been spotted in the walls of the old multi-storey when a small portion of ceiling in the D block collapsed on Tuesday, reports said.

Meanwhile, based on a complaint filed by fire and emergency services department, Kolkata Police on Tuesday lodged an FIR at Burrabazar Police Station under several non-bailable sections against two directors and CEO of Bagree Estate Private Limited, the holding company that owns the commercial building on fire.

"Bagree Estate Private Limited's two directors, Radha Bagree and Varun Raj Bagree, and CEO, Krishna Kumar Kothari alias Kallu, have been named in the FIR and they have been charged under IPC sections 120B and 436, and sections 11C, 11J and 11L of West Bengal Fire Services Act," a Kolkata Police official told IBNS.

However, the trio has been absconding since the fire broke out at the old commercial multi-storey.

Earlier, at around 2:30 am. on Sunday, the major fire broke out on the ground floor of six-storey Bagree Market in central Kolkata's Canning Street area and it spread to other floors quickly as several inflammable objects were stored there.  

A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box beside the building.

West Bengal Fire services' DG Jagmohan said, "It was a huge fire and firefighting operation became more difficult as several inflammable objects were stored inside the multi-storey market."

"No civilian has been injured so far in the incident while few of our firemen were minorly hurt or fell sick during firefighting operations," the official added.

According to locals, hundreds of shops inside the building have been gutted completely due to the fire.

"Just a month before Durga puja, products and machinery worth several crore rupees have been gutted in the major fire outbreak,"  a local trader told IBNS.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)