On reaching the spot, they saw smoke billowing out of the mines and soon, the embers gave way to flames.

The officials of the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), under whose command the mines are, reached the spot around noon and were confronted by the angry locals. The residents of the adjoining village allege that the ECL authorities had lent a deaf ear to their pleas.

The fire is a rerun of the early January episode, when a patch of land had caved in after a frightening blaze in seven illegal coalmines in Asansol. The billowing smoke from its cracks had prompted the villagers to flee from their homes. The flames leapt to a height of 50 feet in what was stated to be the biggest mine blaze in the area. The illegal coalmines are the ones generally abandoned by the ECL.