Fire breaks out in jute mill, none hurt; roof of garments’ factory collapses in Howrah

Kolkata: In two separate incidents, a major fire broke out at a jute mill on Foreshore Road, under Shibpur Police Station and in the second incident the roof of a garments’ factory collapsed at Ghusuri in Howrah on Friday morning.

Though there were no reports of any injury in the fire incident at Foreshore Road, one labourer died at the garments’ factory after an iron beam fell on his head. State Fire minister Sujit Bose went to the ravaged factory and said that an inquiry will be initiated.

According to sources, the fire broke out at the jute mill around 5:30 am when work was going in full swing. The flame was first spotted at the finishing unit.

Immediately an alarm was raised and the factory was evacuated. Due high wind, the fire started spreading rapidly and within a few moments the factory was gutted.

Initially, about 10 fire tenders were pressed into action but firefighters faced trouble due to non-availability of water as no fire-fighting management system was installed in the factory.

Due to low tide in the Hooghly River, the firefighters were unable to set up pumps to extract water.

Meanwhile, the flames spread to three other adjacent factories. After a few moments, about 10 more fire tenders were reportedly added to the fleet. Later, the firefighters extracted water from the reservoirs of several housing complexes in close proximity to douse the blaze. The fire was controlled at around 1 pm after which the cooling process went on for a few more hours.

Meanwhile, around 6 am, about 2000 square feet of the roof of a garments’ factory collapsed at Ghusuri in Howrah. At that time the labourers of morning shift had just taken over the charge and were less in number.

After starting a few machines, suddenly the roof collapsed. Though four labourers suffered minor injuries, one labourer identified as Nikhil Sardar of Chhatna in Bankura suffered critical head injury after an iron beam fell on his head. He was rushed to Howrah District Hospital where Sardar was declared brought dead.