Salt Lake inferno: Civic body to help people get IDs, docus lost in fire

Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has temporarily accommodated families, whose homes were burnt down in a massive fire at a slum located behind the Falguni Housing on Sunday evening, at community centres nearby.

“They are being provided with food, water and all relief materials,” Bidhannagar Mayor Krishna Chakraborty said on Monday.

Chakraborty, along with state Fire minister Sujit Bose had rushed to the spot on Sunday and taken stock of the situation. According to Chakraborty, it was initially decided to shift the affected residents to the Falguni Market Building. But since it has been closed for a long time, the authorities decided to shift them to community halls instead.

A Forensic team arrived at the spot on Monday around 12:20 pm to collect samples. They completed the sample collection work by 1:20 pm. The reason behind the fire is being investigated. Around 80 families have lost their residence and many have misplaced their important documents.

“Many people have suffered property damages and may have also lost their identity proofs in the fire. Hence we are currently collecting the names of the family members so that proper relief can be provided to them. For people who have lost their voter cards or any other identity cards, assistance will be provided for them to file a diary at the police station and acquire the cards after the proper procedure,” Chakraborty said on Monday. She also added: “There will be no problem, we are standing with them.”

The Mayor lauded the immediate action taken by the local boys of the slum who, according to her, sprung into action and helped rescue the residents along with the Fire department. Ten fire tenders were used to control the flames which broke out at around 7:30 pm. It took them around three hours to extinguish the fire. The occupants of the shanties were rescued unhurt.