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Bengal

Major fire breaks out at rubber factory, no casualties reported

A rubber goods manufacturing factory and its adjacent godown was gutted in a devastating fire that broke out in the unit at Charu Market on Thursday afternoon. There was no report of any injury, but the incident led to a huge loss of property due to which many people may lose their jobs. 

Fifteen fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames and fire fighters took more than six hours to bring the situation under control.  After getting information, local MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay visited the spot. 

According to the local people, they saw smoke billowing out of the factory at around 1 pm on Thursday. The local people saw some of the employees of the factory running out and crying to attract attention of the people in the locality.

Initially the local people had initiated the work to douse the flames. The fire fighters had reached the spot within 10 to 15 minutes and joined them. The fire spread fast and engulfed the entire factory within a few minutes as the godown was packed with inflammable materials. Initially six fire tenders were pressed into service. 

Later nine more were sent as the flames were threatening to spread to the adjacent buildings. 
The incident had led to panic in the area as the factory was situated just behind a market.

The situation turned worse when the roof of the factory collapsed. Officers of the Kolkata Police’s Disaster Management Group (DMG) also joined the fire fighters in extinguishing the flames. 

The adjacent buildings were evacuated and the area was cordoned off. No one apart from the fire fighters and DMG were allowed to cross the security barricades. Initially, fire fighters faced trouble to work as many local people had gathered at the spot.  

The fire fighters were yet to ascertain the exact cause of the fire but suspect that electric short circuit had led to the incident. According to the senior officers of the fire department, there was no fire fighting system in the factory and as a result the workers had failed to extinguish the flames when it had not spread much. 

“It would have led to a major incident as there was no firefighting arrangements in the factory which was situated in the congested area,” said an officer of the fire department.

UPHILL TASK

Initially the local people had initiated the work to douse the flames

The fire fighters had reached the spot within 10 to 15 minutes and joined them

The fire spread fast and engulfed the entire factory within a few minutes as the godown was packed with inflammable materials

The situation turned worse when the roof of the factory collapsed

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