Kolkata, June 16 (IANS) A devastating fire broke out at a busy marketplace in the Khidirpur area of South Kolkata, West Bengal, early Monday morning, gutting over 1,300 shops. No casualties have been reported so far.

A total of 20 fire tenders are already on the spot trying to bring the fire under control. An official of the state fire services department present at the spot said the fire had been brought under control to a great extent and to the point that it would not spread further.

“However, the problem that is now being faced by the fire-fighters is identifying the hidden ‘fire pockets’ and bringing them under control, following which it could be said that the situation is totally under control. After the task of identifying and deactivating the hidden ‘fire-pockets’ is over, the cooling process will start,” the fire department official said.

However, the local people have alleged that the fire would not have taken the devastating shape had the fire tenders reached the spot in time. The state fire services minister, Sujit Bose, who rushed to the place in the morning, however, denied the allegations.

“This is a baseless allegation. Since the requirement of fire tenders in this case was more, these vehicles reached the spot from multiple locations like Watganj and Garden Reach. The firefighters are risking their lives to bring the situation under control. At the same time, the owners of the shops were also negligent in adopting fire safety norms. I am not trying to blame anybody. But we will be investigating the matter,” Bose said.

However, the local traders, whose shops were gutted, claim otherwise. “First, the fire tenders reached late. Secondly, the vehicles that reached first did not have enough water. Thereafter, arrangements were made to pump water from the nearby flowing stream of the River Ganges. All these delayed the process to a great extent,” a local trader said.

It is learned that the fire was spotted at around 2 a.m. Besides informing the central control line of the state fire services department, the local people also started the initial task of firefighting. However, because of the congested area where the marketplace was located, the fire started spreading rapidly, and the entire market area came under the grip of fire within a very short period.

“Fortunately, the fire broke out at a time when there were hardly any people in the market area. Had the fire broken out in the daytime, there could have been several casualties. However, we fear that the value of the loss of property and assets because of the fire is huge,” said the fire department official.

–IANS

src/dpb