Over 500 business establishments, including factories, godowns and storehouses across Kolkata, could be the seats of devastating fire, an audit by the fire services department has revealed.
Most of these establishments — packed with inflammable objects — are located in thickly populated areas, including pockets of Jorabagan, Jorasanko in the north, Muchipara, Posta, Burrabazar, Entally, New Market in the central, Tangra, Topsia and Pragati Maidan in the southeast, Charu Market and Chetla in the south and North Port, Taratala, South Port and Metiaburuz in the city’s port area, senior officials of the fire department said.
“We have completed the audit of 568 establishments. Once the process is complete, we will start sending notices to the owners to take precautionary measures,” Sujit Bose, fire and emergency services minister told The Telegraph on Friday.
In March, after a fire from a godown in Tangra had led to a 15-hour-long fire fighting inside one of the dingy lanes in the eastern suburbs, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had suggested Firhad Hakim, the urban development minister and mayor of Kolkata, to constitute a “high-power committee” to ascertain the risk in terms of fire safety parameters for such establishments.
In a post-mortem of the Tangra fire, officials found that the godown had stored rexine and other inflammable objects. The fire safety measures were also inadequate.
A team of officials from the fire services department, police and power utility services was constituted to undertake the fire audit. The team will give its report once the audit is done. “We have decided to warn the owners first,” said an official of the fire and emergency services department.
“If we find that fire-fighting measures have not been taken, necessary legal action would be initiated.”