Fresh flames spotted in Kolkata's Bagree Market, firefighting still underway after 72 hours
Kolkata, Sep 19 (IBNS): Efforts to douse central Kolkata's Bagree Market blaze continued as fresh flames leapt out from the second floor of the six-storey building on Tuesday late night, reports said.
According to reports, more than 30 fire tenders, hundreds of firefighters and civil defense personnel are battling to douse the fire even 72 hours after the outbreak.
"We were tackling a large number of pocket fires on several floors of the building and at around 11:30 pm. on Tuesday, we noticed flames along with black smoke from a portion on the second floor of the multi-storey commercial building," a fire and emergency services official told IBNS.
"Our operation to contain smouldering pocket fires, which had been noticed on second, third and fourth floors of the six-storey market's B, C and D blocks, are currently underway and we are continuing 'cooling off' process at those areas of the building where the blaze has completely been doused," a official said.
"We are expecting that it would take another day or more to bring the blaze completely under control," he added.
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.
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.
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.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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