Ten shanties gutted in New Town, none injured

Kolkata: Ten shanties were gutted when a fire broke out inside a slum at Majherpara in New Town on Sunday early morning.

Five fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames and fire fighters took around four hours to extinguish the fire.

Police came to know from locals that the fire broke out at around 4 am on Sunday. Residents of the shanties were deep in their sleep when the fire broke out.

All of a sudden, they heard screams of people and started moving out of their shanties. The fire initially broke out inside one of the shanties situated in the northern part of the slum.

It spread fast as bamboo structures of all the shanties were attached to each other and there were many inflammable objects inside the shanties. The fire fighters found out that were containers of kerosene oil in many shanties.

The gust of wind last night also helped the fire to spread fast.

The residents, however, tried their level best to bring as many as valuables possible out of the shanties. But they only managed to get a very few valuables out of their house as the fire was threatening to spread fast.

Locals initiated the fire fighting. Later, fire fighters joined the work. They faced a little problem in reaching the spot as the lanes were narrow. The fire fighters continued with their work for four hours to bring the situation under control.

The exact reason of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Some of the local residents told the fire fighters that they heard a loud sound of explosion. So, the fire fighters feel that a cooking gas cylinder might have exploded and to be sure about the exact reason behind the fire, the fire fighters tried to identify the place where the fire initially broke out.

The affected persons were provided with all necessary support and assistance. Many of them were found searching for their valuables in the debris.