The corridor outside the elevators on the 13th floor of New Koilaghat building was cluttered with wooden partitions and had a false ceiling, which could have aggravated the fire, a probe by the fire services department has suggested, sources said on Friday.

This could have intensified the fire outside the elevators and burned seven men the moment they had reached the floor using one of the elevators on Monday night, the probe suggested.

The fire on Monday night that claimed nine lives is being investigated by police while the fire services department is also carrying out an inquiry.

A detailed assessment of areas where the building lacks fire-fighting systems has been shared with the investigating agency as a part of the ongoing probe into the cause of fire in the building and the circumstances that led to the death of nine persons, police sources said.

“The passage outside elevators and the staircases should be kept clean in any highrise building to allow free movement. But in this building, even the common area outside the elevators has been turned into cubicles using plywood partitions. There is a false ceiling which is also inflammable,” said a senior officer of the fire services department.

Seven men, including four fire-fighters, one assistant sub-inspector of Calcutta police and two RPF personnel, were charred to death just outside the elevator on the 13th floor of the building on Monday night.

An officer, who was part of the fire fighting operation and was one among the first to have spotted the bodies on the 13th floor, said the bodies were lying on the floor covered with charred plywood planks and broken chunks of the false ceiling. “Some of them had blood oozing out of their bodies, apparently hit by chunks of false ceiling falling on them. The area was cluttered with plywood and wooden office stationery,” said the police officer.

Police probe found that the places where the bodies were spotted made it apparent that all seven died in the common area just outside the elevator before they could reach
the pockets from where the fire originated.

“Fire fighters have the experience of handling flames in corridors and passages but possibly they could not gauge that the common area was already cluttered with combustible substances which was burning right in front of the elevator,” said a fire department official.

Metro had reported earlier this week that the 14-storied building does not have a fire certificate and that the building authorities have allegedly not complied with the recommendations made by the fire department in 2015.

Following the incident the Eastern Railway has asked the fire and emergency services department to again share the recommendations that were purportedly shared earlier in 2015.

“Any highrise building which is 14.5 metre or beyond and does not have a fire certificate is technically unauthorised...,” said the officer.