Kolkata: At the ravaged Anandapur fire site in Kolkata’s Nazirabad area, families of the deceased and missing have been recounting heartbreaking experiences as they wait for answers and closure. Many workers who had come from districts such as East and West Midnapore to earn a living remain unaccounted for after the blaze destroyed two godowns early on January 26, leaving charred remains that authorities are now trying to identify through DNA matching.
One of the most poignant accounts is that of Pankaj Haldar (35), whose wife Mousumi described how she last spoke to him around 3 am on the night of the fire. In that call, Pankaj told her he was trapped and saw “no chance of escaping.”
For Susmita Singh, the ordeal has taken on a different kind of pain. The 10-year-old travelled from Tamluk to Kolkata with her mother to provide a DNA sample in the hopes of identifying her father’s body, a process she waited through despite her young age and unfamiliarity with DNA testing.
Grief has also struck families like that of Sunil Hansda from Jhargram, whose brother, Rabish Hansda was the security guard of the Wow! Momo factory. Rabish called his brother, assuming the impending doom and said: “I won’t survive. Please take care of my wife and son.”
Outside police stations and mortuaries, relatives clutch photographs and plead for updates, their voices often breaking with sorrow as they await confirmation of identities and cling to faint hopes amid lingering uncertainty.