Over 20 fire tenders were pressed into service after a major fire broke out and spread to at least 12 warehouses at Garden Reach in Kolkata on Saturday. This comes a day after a major fire in shanties situated at Nimtolla Ghat street.
According to firefighters, the blaze was spotted around 10 am on Saturday and then spread rapidly. The warehouses are situated at Taratala Road in Garden Reach. The area was barred from traffic as firefighters and police personnel tried to douse the blaze. The fire was finally contained around 5 pm but not completely doused as of late evening on Saturday. Twelve warehouses were
gutted.
According to firefighters, it is likely that “highly combustible material was stored in the warehouses that led to the fire spreading rapidly”.
“A total of 22 fire engines have been pressed into action, including a remote-controlled, robotic one. The warehouses contained highly combustible material. However, no list of materials stored was given to us. So we do not know what kind of materials were stored. This caused the fire to spread rapidly and took us so much time to control it,” said a senior official of the state fire services.
“I have spoken with our officers. The land belongs to Kolkata port (Trust) which was leased. Port authorities should have checked whether there was a proper fire fighting mechanism,” said Sujit Bose, state fire services minister, who visited the spot.
Later, disaster management force personnel were called in and parts of the warehouse, including tin sheds, were demolished through payloaders and cranes so that firefighters could reach interior portions of the warehouse.
A major fire broke on Friday at a wooden house in Nimtala Ghat Street on Friday morning at a plyboard godown in north Kolkata. Six fire tenders were first sent to the spot to douse the flames which broke out at around 7.45 am. The first floor of the godown in the congested area is filled with old structures, they said. There was no loss of life, said, fire officials. The exact amount of loss is yet to be ascertained.
Being a crowded area many locals rushed out of their homes out of fear. The fire brigade also feared that the fire would spread quickly due to the crowded area. Firefighters climbed the ladder to put out the fire.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/12-kolkata-warehouses-damaged-in-fire-7503523/
