Kolkata: Tension spread at Kharagpur IIT after a major fire broke out in the common room of Lal Bahadur Shastri Hall in the wee hours of Sunday. No injury was reported.
Two fire tenders doused the flames after almost an hour. According to sources, sometime between 3 and 3:30 am the fire broke out inside the common room.
After a while security personnel saw flames raging out from the windows and the window panes were shattering one by one.
Initially, the security personnel and others tried to control the fire but failed. The students, professors and other employees panicked.
After a few moments, one fire tender was pressed into action from Kharagpur. Later another fire tender was sent from Salua.
Around 4:30 am, the fire was controlled. The cooling process was carried out for another hour to ensure no pocket fire is there which may trigger again.
After the fire was doused, it was found that the common room and the objects stored there were gutted. Fire brigade officials suspect that the fire had broken out due to a short circuit.
However, controversy cropped up about the non-functioning of the fire fighting system inside the IIT campus.