Fire in warehouse, property worth crores damaged

The fire broke out at about 4 p.m. from the middle of the warehouse where packing materials were kept. Nearly 200 workers, who were inside, were safely evacuated.

According to the preliminary estimates, nearly 2,000 television sets worth Rs 2 crore were completely damaged in the fire. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. A forensic team will visit the spot on Sunday to collect samples for tests.

Fire Services Minister, Pratim Chatterjee, who reached the spot for inspection, said that the warehouse authorities did not observe fire safety norms while the warehouse was set up. “The fire services department would lodge an FIR and a case would be initiated against the owner after a thorough probe,” said Chatterjee.

The warehouse authorities, however, resented the minister’s reaction. “The minister does not have proper information,” said a warehouse official.

“The entire complex is a no-smoking zone and we have so far found nothing to substantiate that a short circuit occurred,” said vice-president of Kitchen Appliances India Limited, Goutam Sengupta. Officials suspect that somebody might have thrown a cigarette butt in the warehouse.

Twenty fire tenders were rushed to control the fire which was doused by 5:30 p.m. Police officers from Bidhan Nagar East police station also reached the spot to control the situation as warehouse officials and fire-fighters had a tiff at the spot. Fire services officers complained that the fire could not have spread so rapidly had they been informed earlier.

“Our Sector-V fire station is just a few yards away from the spot but we got a call around 4:30 p.m., half-an-hour after the fire broke out. The authorities should have informed us earlier,” said one of the officials. Fire-fighters also said that they initially had trouble controlling the fire as the warehouse did not have sufficient water and fire-fighting equipment.

Company officials were confident that normal operations would resume from Monday. “We would have to make an estimate to assess the exact amount of property damaged in the fire,” Sengupta said.