At least 10 shops gutted, 1 injured in massive fire at Salt Lake FD Block

KOLKATA: At least 10 shops, including godowns, were gutted after a major fire broke out at the temporary market of Salt Lake FD Block on Thursday morning.

About 12 fire tenders controlled the fire after almost six hours. State Fire minister Sujit Bose and Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Krishna Chakraborty along with local Councillor Banibrata Banerjee went to the spot and took stock of the situation. A conservancy staff of the BMC suffered an injury while trying to douse the flames.

According to local people, the fire was noticed by a few shop owners around 6:15 am on Thursday in a decorator’s godown.The police after reaching the site informed the Fire Brigade.

However, the flames started spreading to other shops before fire-fighting engines arrived.A flower shop adjacent to the decorator’s godown caught fire and was gutted within a few moments. Initially, six fire tenders were pressed into action but due to the increasing intensity, six more fire tenders were also pressed into action.

Around 11:30 am, the fire was controlled. The cooling process continued for several more hours. It is suspected that the fire broke out due to a short circuit inside the decorator’s godown.

As the godown and shops had inflammable materials, the flames spread quickly. The BMC Mayor said: “Forensic examination of the incident will be done soon. A conservancy worker suffered injuries while dousing the flames. He has been admitted to a private hospital. We will be bearing the expenses of his treatment.”

Meanwhile, six members of a family of North Dinajpur’s Islampur were killed on Thursday in an explosion that occurred due to a gas cylinder leak in Haryana’s Panipat.