A fire broke out at the Baguiati branch of Canara Bank in northeast Kolkata on Wednesday morning, police said.
Although nobody was injured, the fire led to a loss of important documents as well as electronic data from the server and storage units of the bank, an official of the bank said.
The bank and the locker room were safe, he said. The bank is located on the first floor of a four-storey commercial-cum-residential building near the Baguiati bus stop on VIP Road.
Residents of the area saw dense black smoke coming out of the building around 9.15am. They alerted the fire brigade and a single engine reached the spot within 15 minutes, an officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said.
Families on the second and third floors were evacuated by residents of the area before the fire engine arrived at the spot.
The ground floor of the building houses several shops. Apart from the bank, the first floor houses a few shops and a photography studio.
Realising that the fire could spread to adjacent buildings, the firemen called for back up and at least three more fire engines were sent to the spot. The firemen brought the fire under control in an hour but had to wait for much longer for the smoke to clear out.
“There were a lot of flammable articles in the bank. Although we managed to control the blaze within an hour, we could step in to check for pockets of fire several minutes later because of the smoke,” said a fire department official.
Another fireman said it was likely that the fire had started from an electrical short circuit.
As news of the fire spread, people who have accounts in the bank rushed there.
Shovik Halder, who runs a grocery shop and has multiple accounts in the bank, was spotted pacing up and down the road in front of the bank.
“I am worried as all my accounts and my wife’s accounts are in this bank,” said Halder. He said a bank official told him there would not be any problem with the accounts.