A fire broke out inside a readymade garments godown on the ninth floor of Nandaram Market on Saturday, re-igniting memories of a 100-hour inferno at Calcutta’s biggest wholesale trading hub 11 years ago.
It took eight fire tenders to bring the blaze under control as innumerable traders from the 13-storey Nandaram Market and adjoining Burrabazar markets like Raja Katra, Tripal Patti and Monahardas Katra gathered in the shadows, panic writ large on their faces.
Till late at night it was not clear what caused the fire. Firefighters said they suspected a short circuit had sparked the blaze. Bundles of readymade garments stacked inside the 300sqft godown went up in flames after an electrical spark apparently fell on one of them, eyewitnesses said.
Police, firefighters and members of the disaster management team said the location of the building, in the middle of a bustling market, made it difficult to tackle the blaze.
An anxious trader look up at the blaze. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha
None was trapped or injured. Traders said they were yet to assess the extent of the damage cause by the fire, which began around 3pm.
“The collapsible gates of the godown were locked. The lone staff member of the godown had just left for lunch when the fire broke out,” said Prakitish Chaudhury, a trader dealing in plastic bags, who was present on the floor when the fire began.
“We immediately called our staff, broke open the gates and tried to douse the flames with water,” he added.
The police are yet to identify the godown owner. A section of traders claimed that one Naresh Gupta owned the godown. Gupta has been a player in the market for a long time, the traders said, and was not around when the fire broke out.
Flames started leaping out of the window of the ninth-floor godown as traders ran out of the building, some taking along their books of account and others with almirahs and lockers.
An anxious trader look up at the blaze. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha
There are around 4,000 shops and godowns in Nandaram Market, which had been at the centre of a tug of war for years since the January 2008 fire. The fire department had refused to allow the market to open, while the Calcutta Municipal Corporation had faced pressure to issue fresh trade licences.
In 2013, the market re-opened after the fire department ensured that some of its safety recommendations, including a water reservoir with a hydrant system and sprinklers, were in place.
On Saturday, some traders said the fire-fighting system worked for sometime with pipes carrying water from the reservoir on the terrace through hydrants, but the flow was weak. “After the CESC snapped the power supply, the flow of water was disrupted because the pumps stopped functioning,” said Manik Sethia, a trader.
The fire engines initially faced difficulty in carrying water pipes to the ninth-floor godown. Later, generators were used to restart the reservoir pumps. A sky-lift, which could reach a height of 55 metres, was brought in. But with no space to manoeuvre and a mesh of cables hanging in the air, the lift couldn’t be operated.
“I came down with my book of accounts. It brought back memories of the 2008 fire,” said Raj Purohit, one of the traders.
Police officers said forensic experts would reach the spot on Sunday and collect samples. “We will later check if the fire-fighting system had worked,” said Sujit Bose, the fire and emergency services minister, who visited Nandaram Market.
