Early on Monday, a huge fire destroyed over 1300 stores in the Khidirpur market region of Kolkata. Monday’s fire started about one in the morning. More than twenty fire engines contained to put the fire under control. The fire brigade claims that several stores including rice godowns have been destroyed.
Notified the local inhabitants and businesses, multiple oil godowns and warehouses/shops with combustible materials in that vicinity allowed the fire to spread quickly. Besides, the area is crowded, which made dousing the fire even more challenging and kept burning in various places until Monday early.
Not a single death recorded thus far
As yet, no casualties have been recorded from the incident.
” Luckily, the fire started during a period when the market area had scarcely any people. Should the fire strike during the daytime, several people might have perished. A fire department official warned reporters, however, that the value of the loss of assets and real estate resulting from the fire is enormous.
Following which it might be claimed that the situation is completely under control. The fire-fighters now have to find and bring under control concealed “fire pockets”. The cooling procedure will begin after the work of locating and turning off the concealed “fire-pockets” is completed,” he stated.
Minister of Fire Services Sujit Bose claims local allegations “baseless.”
Sujit Bose, West Bengal Minister of Fire and Emergency Services, paid the site a visit and guaranteed all required assistance. The minister also claimed that some local stores have been set up illegally without municipal authority and that they do not follow fire safety rules, which has resulted in congestion in the region and problems dousing the flames.
Local people have said that the delay in the arrival of the fire tenders made the fire more severe. “First, the fire tenders reached late,” a storekeeper said. Second, the trucks that made it first lacked sufficient water. Arrangements were then set up to pump water from the neighbouring River Ganges flowing stream. All this seriously slowed down the procedure.
Minister Sujit Bose said, “This is a baseless allegation,” discounting these allegations. Since the need of fire tenders in this situation was larger, these vehicles arrived at the place from several points like Garden Reach and Watganj. The firefighters are risking their life to bring the matter under control.
” Simultaneously, the store owners showed carelessness in implementing fire safety policies. I am not aiming to point fingers. Still, the minister added, we will be looking at this.