Kamal Ghorui
KOLKATA: At least 11 persons died and about 23 others are still missing in a devastating fire that ravaged two godowns at Anandapur off Ruby crossing in the early hours of Monday.The blaze broke out around 3 am Monday in one of the godowns belonging to Pushpanjali Decorators and quickly spread to the adjoining warehouse operated by Wow! Momo, a chain with all-India presence. With inflammable goods stacked in both facilities, the structures went up in flames, making escape nearly impossible. Locals said only three of about 37 workers present in the two godowns managed to escape.
Except three employees who were in the Wow! Momo unit, all the others were in the Pushpanjali godown. Most of the workers hailed from neighbouring districts and stayed on the godown premises.Though 11 charred bodies were recovered from the site till Tuesday evening, the high number of people still missing raised fears that this could become the third deadliest fire tragedy in Kolkata in recent memory after the fires at AMRI Hospital (toll 89) and Stephen Court (43) a decade-and-a-half ago. Officials said DNA tests will be conducted to identify the bodies.On Tuesday afternoon, state urban development minister and Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim visited the spot in Nazirabad under Narendrapur PS and announced that each affected family will get Rs 10 lakh compensation.Narendrapur cops detained Gangadhar Das, owner of Pushpanjali Decorators, from his East Midnapore home. According to sources, Das owns the plot on which the two warehouses were built. Wow! Momo took the godown on lease from him.Police and fire services personnel attributed the tragedy to the absence of fire safety protocol inside the two structures. A senior police officer said, “An investigation is on to ascertain the exact cause of the fire. Prima facie we suspect the blaze started from a cooking oven. We are also looking into fire safety compliance of the godowns.”Fire minister Sujit Bose, who also visited the spot, said the units were operating without mandatory fire safety clearances and with little to no firefighting preparedness. “A probe has been initiated to ascertain the cause. We are also checking if fire audit was done. Stern legal action will be taken against the godown owners for lapses,” he said.A spokesperson of Wow! Momo said their Nazirabad warehouse began operations three years ago and they complied with all fire safety protocols. “Twenty-eight fire extinguishers were installed inside the warehouse. The godown that belongs to the decorator’s company did not have any compliance and the fire spread from there,” he said.Locals alleged that waterbodies were filled to build factories and warehouses in the area. “The waterbodies were filled during the Left Front regime. Our govt gives importance to the preservation of wetlands. Cops are probing the incident, and none responsible for the tragedy will be spared,” said Hakim.Rescue operations continued throughout Tuesday, with firefighters and disaster response teams cautiously entering structures weakened by the blaze to retrieve bodies feared trapped under collapsed roofs and burnt goods. The operation remained slow due to the risk of further collapse. “We are proceeding very carefully as the structure has become weak. Safety of the rescue teams is our priority. This has slowed down the rescue effort,” said an official of the disaster response group. Ambulances remained on standby while police maintained a tight vigil around the site.Relatives of the workers who rushed to the spot from far-off places were seen breaking down in tears on seeing the scale of the devastation. They repeatedly approached police and officials but received no clear information about the fate of their family members. “We are waiting for any word, but the silence is deafening. Our boys came here to earn a living, not to disappear into ash,” said a relative of one of the missing men from Panskura.
