After CM's directive, panel formed to probe fire safety audit of godowns in city

kolkata: A day after a massive fire had broken out in a godown at Tangra area, a high-power committee has been constituted on the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to conduct a survey and file a report about how many factories and godowns are running in congested areas of the city.

The committee comprising Firhad Hakim, Mayor of Kolkata along with Fire and Emergency Services department and Kolkata Police will also try to ascertain the chances of fire incident and check whether all necessary permissions were obtained or not. The report will be submitted at Nabanna later.

"The chief minister has asked me to form a high-powered committee, comprising police, fire department and corporation officials, to ascertain the number of godowns which are in congested areas and at risk in terms of fire safety parameters. The government will act as per the report of the panel," Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim said after visiting the fire incident site.

Hakim, who is also urban development and municipal affairs minister, said a forensic team will visit the site to ascertain reasons for the fire that continued to rage for a long time.

According to the official, the godown had rexine (synthetic leather) and other inflammable objects, including some chemicals, camphor oil and alcohol.

If it was just a rexine godown, the fire would not have burnt for such a long time. Officials of the forensic department will come and ascertain the cause, he said. Meanwhile, firefighters doused the fire completely on Sunday after almost 16 hours of relentless efforts. Hakim on Sunday suspected that there were some other inflammable materials there apart from rexine. "What kind of materials were stored can be said only after forensic examination," he said.

Commissioner of Kolkata Police, Vineet Kumar Goyal also visited the fire gutted warehouse on Sunday morning and took stock of the situation. He later said that after the fire is completely extinguished the forensic team will visit the spot for further investigation. On Sunday Station Officer of Headquarter Fire Station lodged a complaint against the owners of the godown located at 13, Meher Ali Lane in Tangra. It is alleged that the accused persons had kept rexine, leather and other items in the godown without a fire safety certificate and subsequently flouted the norms of fire safety measures.