New Barrackpore: Blaze continues to smoulder even after 18 hours

kolkata: A massive fire broke out at a hosiery factory at Bilkanda in New Barrackpore late on Wednesday night.

Fire fighters struggled for more than 18 hours to rescue four people who reportedly got trapped inside the factory. Sujit Bose, the Minister of State for Fire and Emergency Services went to the spot and oversaw the fire dousing operation.

Preliminary investigation reveals that the factory owner had been carrying on work inside the factory flouting pandemic norms. The shutters of the factory complex were locked from outside.

Local people saw flames coming out of the factory at around 2 am and informed the police and the fire brigade. Fire tenders could not enter the factory complex as all the gates were locked.

The fire had spread to an adjacent godown of a retail medicine chain and the whole complex was up in flames. Fire fighters claimed that they could reach the spot after almost an hour.

While dousing the flames, using 14 fire tenders, firefighters tried to enter the godown and the factory but failed as several inflammable objects like petrol, LPG cylinders which were stored inside the factory started exploding. Also several inflammable objects were stored in the godown which fanned the fire. In the afternoon, fire brigade officials decided to use a robot fire tender which can move close to the fire and spray water. But that did not work. Apart from Bose, Commissioner of Barrackpore City Police, Manoj verma also went to the spot. The firefighters had also tried to demolish a portion of the building on the back side to enter but the plan did not work due to excessive heat.

Till last reports came in, firefighters were relentlessly trying to bring the fire under control.