Residents of the building in Bangur that caught fire on Sunday drafted a letter, to be sent to fire minister Sujit Bose and South Dum Dum Municipality, on storing of flammable goods on the premises that had blocked the entrance and exit during the fire.
“Do something regarding the stacking of flammable goods and other articles in the common areas of the building that had blocked the main entrance and exit of the building during the fire,” says the letter, which the residents plan to send on Wednesday.
On Sunday evening, a fire broke out in a six-storey building at the intersection of Jessore Road and Bangur Avenue. The building has a shop on the ground floor, a small warehouse on the first floor and a cloud kitchen on the second. The other three floors have residential flats.
The shop, which sold dry fruits, ghee and other items, was gutted.
A senior fire official said the warehouse, too, was badly damaged. Flammable materials, including cardboard boxes and tins filled with ghee and butter, and plywood partitions fanned the flames, causing them to spread rapidly through the first three floors and reach the cloud kitchen.
Residents had to escape through the building’s rear by scaling the boundary wall with a ladder, the official said. The front of the building was in flames, which blocked the main entry and exit.
Twelve fire tenders and over 100 firemen took around two hours to control the blaze.
The residents held a meeting on Monday, and by Tuesday, they drafted the letter to be sent to minister Bose. A copy will be sent to South Dum Dum Municipality, they said.
“We have drafted the letter and will send it on Wednesday. We want to ensure that such an incident does not recur. In our letter, we have asked the authorities to ensure that something is done to prevent the blocking of common areas by commercial establishments, which are using those areas as storage space. Many of us could not leave the building through the main door,” Lokesh Kumar, a building resident, told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
A team of forensic officials visited the building on Tuesday and collected samples from multiple spots.
A senior fire official said it was mandatory for buildings with mixed usage to have firefighting equipment.
“Our teams are probing the incident. We are trying to find out why the firefighting systems did not work. We are checking whether the shop and the warehouse had fire licences,” said minister Bose.
A senior official of South Dum Dum Municipality said they would look into the matter once they receive the letter from the residents.
Godown fire
Tangra: A plastic materials godown on DC Dey Road in Tangra caught fire on Tuesday afternoon. Five fire tenders doused it. No one was injured, police said.