Multi-storeyed building in Girish Park catches fire

Fire broke out in a multi-storeyed building at Kolkata’s Girish Park late Saturday night, though no casualties were reported.

The building, housing many medium and small offices, was almost empty at the time of the incident. Four fire tenders rushed to the spot to douse the flames. 

Police said that firefighters were forced to break open the doors of offices each time to rescue the occupants. “There were no fire safety measures in the building. There was no fire exit there either. We only found a few containers of fire extinguishers,” said a firefighter.

The police said there was one office in the building where air conditioners were running even in during midnight. The employees working in that place apparently did not bother switching of the air conditioners.

The cause of the fire, however, is yet to be determined.

The incident is similar to another recent fire which occurred in Entally’s Motijhil area.

Nine fire tenders were pressed into service for that fire and firefighters managed to evacuate all residents of the building to safety.

There are many instances of fire incidents that have occurred in Kolkata in the recent past.

In September 2014, seven people including a fireman were injured in a fire in a Kolkata high-rise in the centre of the city. The fire had broken out at the 16th floor of Chatterjee International building, one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Police said the fire originated from the office of Birla Cements and spread quickly to other offices. The fire department had rescued four persons trapped inside the building.

Officials said that very few people were present at the spot as the incident took place before office hours.

In December 2015, a fire had broken out on the sixth floor of a Sector V high-rise on a Wednesday morning.

A security guard on the ground floor of Infinity Benchmark, that houses several IT and ITeS companies, had witnessed flames emanating from a window on the sixth floor while thick smoke obscured views of the upper floors around 7.00 am.

With smoke making it impossible for them to enter the fire ravaged building, firefighters had to use a 42-metre skylift to access the sixth floor office from the outside to launch a rescue operation.

They broke the window panes and entered the office with breathing apparatus. Six fire tenders brought the fire under control in a little over four hours.