Kolkata: 34 hours on, firefighting ops still underway at Bagree Market
Kolkata, Sep 17 (IBNS): Efforts to douse Kolkata's Bagree Market blaze are still underway even 34 hours after the fire broke out, reports said.
As many as 35 fire tenders, more than 100 firemen and city civil defense personnel are currently engaged in battling the massive fire.
An official of the state fire and emergency services said that the second and third floors of Bagree Market were still on fire while blaze in other floors of the six-storey commercial building has been doused.
"We have arrested the source of the fire and our men have reached almost all floors of the multi-storey with all their equipment," the fire services official told IBNS.
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"We can say that the fire in the building has almost been arrested and our operation is still on to douse a large number of pocket fires," the official said.
"We are suspecting that it will take at least 72 more hours to douse the fire completely and to complete cooling off process at the building," he added.
Earlier at around 2:30 am. on Sunday, the major fire broke out on the ground floor of six-storey commercial building, Bagree Market, under Hare Street Police Station limits in central Kolkata's Canning Street area and it spread to other floors quickly as several inflammable objects were stored there.
Senior officials of city police, Director General of West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services, Jagmohan, and Kolkata Mayor and state fire services minister Sovan Chatterjee visited the scene on Sunday early morning.
"Firefighters are trying their best to douse the blaze and prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings," Sovan Chatterjee told IBNS.
"After bringing the fire under control, we will probe into the reason behind the massive blaze," Chatterjee said.
A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box inside the building.
After visiting the site, Fire services DG Jagmohan told IBNS, "It's a huge fire and firefighting operation has become more difficult here as several inflammable objects are stored inside the multi-storey market," Fire services DG Jagmohan told IBNS.
"Our men are trying their best fearlessly to bring the blaze under control and we are expecting that it will take another day to douse the blaze completely," Jagmohan said.
"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.
Meanwhile, to assist fire and emergency services department in firefighting operations, Kolkata Traffic Police had closed several nearby roads, including Rabindra Sarani in between M.G. Road & Podder Court and Canning Street in between Brabourne Road & Rabindra Sarani, to vehicular traffic.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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