A fire broke out in the domestic departure area of the Kolkata airport on Wednesday night and passengers and employees had to be evacuated.
There were no injuries, airport and police officers said, but several flights which were to take off from the city were delayed.
Incoming flights were not affected. But passengers were not allowed to disembark until the commotion inside the terminal subsided, an airport official said.
The fire broke out at the check-in portal D, near counter number 16, at 9.12 pm. “The check-in portal was closed, so there were no passengers there,” said an airport official.
Eight fire tenders were pressed into service and the fire was extinguished at 9.40 pm.
Smoke had engulfed a large portion of the terminal.
Initially, airport employees tried to bring the fire under control, but when the flames kept leaping up, fire services and disaster management personnel had to be deployed.
“There was a minor fire and smoke in the check-in area portal D at 9.12 pm and fully extinguished by 9.40 pm,” a tweet by the airport authorities said.
Airport sources said that at 10.45 pm, 18 flights from Calcutta were stranded for an hour on average because the check-in process was stalled.
“Passengers had to be evacuated and so check-in was closed as a safety measure,” said an official. The check-in resumed around 10.30 pm, when passengers who were standing outside the terminal were again allowed inside,” said an airport official. Passengers who had already checked in and were at the boarding gate or in the security hold area were taken to the ground floor of the building through the stairs. The departure area is on the first floor of the terminal. The area around check-in portal D was sealed off. Airport sources said the findings of preliminary investigations suggested that a short-circuit caused the fire. A detailed probe is on.
“The hose pipes that supply water were taken inside the terminal through gate 3C,” said an airport official.“It was not the peak hour. So the terminal building had relatively fewer passengers. Otherwise, there could have been a problem in evacuation,” said an official.
Many employees of the airport and airlines who work in the basements and other parts of the building were evacuated, too.
“The fire has been doused now. We are trying to ensure normality at the airport,” Bidhannagar police commissioner Gaurav Sharma said on Wednesday night.
Some of the airport employees said they had not seen a fire inside the new terminal building since it was inaugurated in 2013.