Blaze at GAIL office on Pretoria St., firemen rescue all to safety

A major fire broke out in the office of GAIL housed on the third floor of a six-storeyed commercial building — Aspiration Vintage — on Pretoria Street in South Kolkata on Thursday afternoon.

The incident took place when people in all the 12 offices in the building were busy in their work on a working day.

Firefighters rescued 26 persons stuck in the centrally air-conditioned building with glass panels all over. Eight of them including one woman fell ill due to suffocation. They were taken to SSKM Hospital where they were discharged after being provided with necessary treatment.

Mayor and the state Fire minister, Sovan Chatterjee, visited the spot. He said: "The fire broke out at the office of GAIL situated on the third floor of the building at 12, Pretoria Street. Smoke had mainly engulfed the entire building. Many people were inside the building. All of them were rescued by firefighters. Eight of them had inhaled smoke and had fallen ill. They have been taken to the hospital and now, the fire is under control."

He said that once again the entire building has been checked to be sure that there is no one stuck inside.

When asked about the firefighting arrangements in the building, Chatterjee said: "Usually, fire fighting arrangements remain available in such buildings. Our first responsibility is to douse the flame and then we will review whether the firefighting arrangements had worked or not."

Ten fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire. Though the flames were extinguished within a short time, firefighters had a tough time rescuing the officials who were stuck inside the smoke-filled building. The firefighters broke the glass panels to let the smoke come out.

It was only after breaking the glass panels of the third, fourth and fifth floors that the officials could be brought down using the staircases. The adjacent Abhinav Bharati High School declared a holiday at around 1 pm as the fire in the commercial building led to a panic and there were threats of the flame spreading.

Amit Kumar, who got stuck in his office situated on the fourth floor of the building, said: "It was around 12.30 pm when the fire broke out in the office of GAIL. Though the fire didn't spread much, the building got filled with smoke within a few seconds. We could not even see the person standing beside us. Later, we were being rescued by firefighters."

Ram Dayal Mayrya, another employee of an office on the fourth floor of the building, claimed that he and another colleague Manash Panja climbed down the water pipe to save their lives when others were stuck inside. He further said that though there were firefighting arrangements, no one could use them.