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The fire broke out around noon on the first floor of the two-storied Readymade Center Private Limited on Station Road, Sodepur — 20 km north of Kolkata.
Some construction was going on in the floor and the Fire Department suspects that the welding work was responsible for the blaze. The sparks had landed on the tarpaulin sheets on the staircase, which caught fire. The blaze spread fast and the fire blocked the staircase, the only exit route, trapping around 50 people — staff, customers and construction workers — inside. Some tried to use the emergency exit, but its shutters were jammed and could not be opened from the outside either.
The personnel of four fire tenders “assisted by the police, had to break open the glass panels on the first floor for the rescue,” said Praveen Kumar Tripathy, ASP, North-24 Parganas.
Two women were among the deceased. One was a customer, Tulsi Bose. The other was Ranjana Saha, a relative of the owners. Two firemen and the owners of the shop —Narayan Saha, his brother Jeevan and son Rana — were among the injured.
“None of the bodies bore serious burns and it was obvious that most of the deaths occurred due to suffocation,” said Kaushik Chatterjee, a local involved in the rescue. According to Jyotisman Chatterjee, SDO, Barrackpore, the five critically injured peope have been admitted at the Panihati State General Hospital and Balram Seva Mandir. Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has expressed grief over the loss of lives. Later in the evening, Finance minister Asim Dasgupta visited the spot. Fire minister Pratim Chatterjee said the owners Narayan and Jeevan Saha will be booked for carrying out welding work even as the shop was being run. The work, in fact, had been going on for the last few months.
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I am Miss. Ritika Adhikary a resident of sodepur and was almost going to get into that fire.. that day.. i and my mother Mrs. Rama Adhikary were going to that shop... but on our way we felt that we should not go there as the weather was very hot and try later in the evening... we were at the bridge very near 2 that shop.. and we returned home. When we came home and heard the news we were just shocked... and thanked God for saving our life...........