Midnight blaze guts Kolkata's Bagri Market, firefighting ops still underway
Kolkata, Sep 16 (IBNS): A massive fire broke out at Bagri Market in central Kolkata's Burrabazar area in the wee hours of Sunday, officials said.
According to reports, the fire was first noticed around 2:30 am. on the ground floor of six-storey Mehta Building at the marketplace, which is located at congested Canning Street area, and it spread quickly to other floors as several inflammable objects were stored there.
As many as 30 fire tenders, policemen from local Hare Street Police Station and Disaster Management Group (DMG) personnel rushed to the scene and firemen are still battling to douse the massive blaze.
Senior officials of city police and fire and emergency services department, and Kolkata Mayor as well as state fire services minister Sovan Chatterjee visited the scene on Sunday early morning.
"Firefighters are trying their best to douse the blaze and prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings," Sovan Chatterjee told IBNS.
"After bringing the fire under control, we will probe into the reason behind the massive blaze," Chatterjee said.
"As the location is very congested and the roads are very narrow, we are unable to use hydraulic ladders in firefighting operation," fire services minister added.
A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box inside the building.
During the firefighting operation, two firemen were reportedly injured, though no fatality has been reported in the incident so far.
Locals said that portion of the market has been affected due to the fire and hundreds of shops inside the building have been gutted.
"Just a month before Durga puja, products and machinery worth several crore rupees have been gutted in the major fire outbreak," a local trader told IBNS.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Traffic Police officials said that to assist fire and emergency services department in firefighting operations, several nearby roads, including Rabindra Sarani in between M.G. Road & Podder Court and Canning Street in between Brabourne Road & Rabindra Sarani have been closed to vehicular traffic.
(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)
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