At 12.30 am on Thursday night, a fire broke out at DC Dey Road, near Dhobiatala line, and gutted around 80 dwelling units leaving more than 650 people homeless.

Amina Bibi (53), a resident of the area, said that she was sleeping when the fire broke out. “Before we could save anything everything was destroyed,” she said. Although she has received food and a blanket from a relief camp, she is apprehensive about her future.

The residents claimed that it was the third time that the place had been burnt down in the last few years, but they claimed that they were too poor to move out to any other part of the city.

For Sheik Bilal, a fourth grade student of Hindu Narayan School, the loss is perhaps more. He not only has lost his home but also his books, barely a week before his final examination.

Meanwhile, the locals have set up relief camps to distribute food to the homeless, while the Kolkata Police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have been distributing blankets and baby food and other necessary items. A few local NGOs have also set up camps to provide medical aid among other things.

Netai Mukherjee, one of the doctors at the camp, said that they have been mainly treating people for minor and burn-related injuries. In the morning, local Trinamool leaders Javed Khan and Sudip Bandopadhyay visited the area and promised more relief material.

Later in the day, both State Tourism Minister Manab Mukherjee and Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya visited the spot. “We shall soon start the process of providing the homeless people with shelter,” said the mayor.

The forensic department visited the spot to collect samples and preliminary investigations point towards a short-circuit. “We suspect that there was a short-circuit and as most of the units were made with plastic and other inflammable materials, the fire spread fast. The total area affected is nearly 4,000 sq meters,” said Durjati Sengupta, Director, West Bengal Forensic Laboratory.

Around 22 fire engines were rushed to the spot to douse the fire. Lakshmi Mani Banerjee, counselor of the area, said that nearly 114 families have been affected in the fire. “We are using a local marriage hall to provide food and shelter to the victims,” she said. However, she said that so far the matter of compensation was yet to be sorted out.