Nine people died in the fire that broke out at the New Koilaghat building on Monday night. Four of them were fire-fighters, four railway employees and one was an assistant sub-inspector of Calcutta Police. Another railway official who was injured, is admitted at the intensive care unit of a hospital. The Telegraph finds about the dead and the injured.

The Dead

Biman Purkait, 24

Worked for: West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services as an auxiliary fire operator

Purkait was one of those who had jumped into the rescue of patients at the AMRI Hospital in Dhakuria after a fire broke out at the hospital in December 2011, leaving 92 dead. He was only 14 then but did not think twice before joining few others in bringing out the trapped patients.

On Monday night too, Purkait didn’t think twice and was one of the first to enter the building when fire was engulfing the 13th floor, said his colleagues. Purkait was in one of the elevators and his body was recovered along with several others.

According to fire services officials, auxiliary fire operators are one of the first responders of the department, when a fire breaks out. They are contractual employees without benefits of provident fund and other perquisites.

He was among those who were trying to go to the upper floors, where the fire was raging, using an elevator.

Purkait lived with parents, brother and sister-in-law in their one room hutment in a slum in Dhakuria’s Panchanantala. “He is from a poor family. The family has been devastated,” said Baiswanor Chattopadhyay, the coordinator for Ward 90 of Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

The young man’s Facebook profile had imprints of his kind heart. He shared pictures of children who had been lost requesting others to help their parents find the kind by giving an address. He also shared posts looking for blood donors for patients.

An official of the fire brigade said he had been working with the department for three years.

Biman Purkait

Amit Kumar Bhawal, 45

Worked for: Calcutta Police as assistant sub-inspector

Bhawal, an assistant sub-inspector with the Hare Street police station, was on patrol on a motorbike when he heard about the fire. He went inside the building to assess the gravity of the fire and report it to his seniors.

The feedback would have been important to assess the response required. But when Bhawal did not come down, his colleagues became worried. “He died while trying to ensure that others were safe or that the fire did not go out of control,” a police officer said.

A colleague had tried to dissuade Bhawal from going inside, but he said he would go inside and assess the scale of the fire. “He went inside around 6.10pm. When I called him around 6.50pm, I could not connect,” said the colleague.

Long after, his body was found in one of the elevators inside the building.

Bhawal’s body was taken to Lalbazar, the headquarters of the Calcutta Police, on Tuesday afternoon.

Police commissioner Soumen Mitra and several other officers paid tribute to him. The police also gave him a gun salute.

Amit Kumar Bhawal

Girish Dey, 40

Worked for: West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services as a sub-officer

Dey, a sub-officer of fire brigade, was placed with the Lalbazar fire station. It was among those fire stations whose personnel were among the first to reach the New Koilaghat building on Monday.

“He was a very bright officer, never afraid of anything,” said a retired fire brigade officer who had worked with Dey.

Dey had completed his graduate fire engineering training from Delhi, said the retired officer. Dey’s father is a retired police officer, he said.

Fire brigade officers said Dey would have risen up the ranks and reached among the senior officers of the department. He was also learning the nitty-gritty about issuing fire safety certificates and would have received the authority to inspect structures and issue fire safety certificates in another couple of years.

The fire brigade officer was supposed to go on a family vacation with his wife and son on Tuesday.

Girish Dey

Partha Sarathi Mondal, 59

Worked for: Eastern Railway as deputy-chief commercial manager

A resident of Sremani Para in Baranagar, Mondal used to live with his ailing wife since the time their only daughter was married off. His office was on the fourth floor.

On Monday he spotted the flames after he came out of the building after work. He decided to return to retrieve some documents, said one of his colleagues.

Family members have learnt from his colleagues that on his way to the ground floor, after the retrieving the documents, Mondal had taken a lift which instead of going to the ground floor, first went up to the 13th floor. Partha died of asphyxia, railway officials said.

Late on Monday, Mondal’s son-in-law rushed to Strand Road and had even inquired about him with chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM was seen consoling him.

Neither the police nor the fire department officials could then provide him any information about his father-in-law. The news of his death reached the family much later after his body was identified at SSKM morgue.

Sanjay Sahani, 36

Worked for: Railway Protection Force (RPF) as a constable

A resident of Manishpur in Vaishali district of Bihar, Sahani was a RPF personnel and his colleagues recalled him as a young and jovial person who stayed in his railway quarters with his nephew.

Sahani was accompanying Partha Sarathi Mondal as his security and had joined his boss on scurrying upstairs from the ground floor when they saw the fire on Monday evening.

The two had secured some files and were on their way to the ground floor. The lift that Sahani and Mondal used moved to the fire-hit 13th floor, instead of going to the ground floor. Sahani died with Partha in the lift.

“I got the information this morning from one of his colleagues,” said one of Sahani’s brothers who reached the fire-site on Tuesday afternoon.

Aniruddha Jana, 29

Worked for: West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services as an auxiliary fire officer

Jana had joined the department three years back. He was part of a team of firefighters from the headquarters to have rushed to the Strand Road building.

He is survived by father Mohan Lala Jana and his sister who got married a month back, said his colleagues.

Jana himself was supposed to tie the knot in the next couple of months.

He had received the best firefighter reward from the department last year for exemplary courage during the Bagri Market fire as well as the one that broke out at the Jaanbazar Market, a senior fire officer said.

An avid follower of sports, he would always request his seniors or co-firefighters to switch to the sports channels on the television in the fire station whenever a cricket or football match was on.

One of his family members said that he was fond of travelling and was planning a trip to Darjeeling in April.

Aniruddha Jana

Sudip Das, 57

Worked for: Eastern Railway as senior technician in the signal and telecommunication department

The Howrah resident had returned home on his motorbike after signing out of his office around 5.10pm on Tuesday. After a brief stay at his Benaras Road home in Kona, Das had gone to meet his mother at her Dasnagar house in Howrah, who had recently undergone an eye surgery.

He then received a call from one of his colleagues informing him about the fire and requested him to return, said one of his colleagues.

Das had keys to some of the office doors.

Over the next four hours, his family members and friends kept calling him on his mobile phone but the calls remained unanswered. Some of his colleagues feared his death since they had spotted his motorbike lying at the parking lot of the Strand Road building, but he wasn’t taking any calls. Late in the night, the family was informed that Das had passed away.

“We had requested the police to check his mobile location because it was difficult to identify him. His face was badly burnt,” said one of Das’s friends.

Shrawan Pandey, 56

Worked for: Eastern Railway as a senior commercial clerk

Pandey was about to leave for his home in Sealdah when the news of fire reached him. He scurried down to the ground floor and noticed some firefighters and police trying to find a way to reach the seat of fire.

According to Pandey’s colleagues, he told the fire-fighters that they must reach the spot as early as possible since several servers were located at the top of the building where the fire was raging.

Pandey’s colleagues said he then joined a team of fire-fighters and police who were trying to reach the seat of fire and received severe burns that caused his death.

Gourab Bej, 35

Worked for: West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services as an auxiliary fire officer

Bej had finished his fire training course in 2013 and joined the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services as an auxiliary fire officer. He was attached with the Lalbazar fire station. He was a resident of Garfa.

He was one of the first responders of the New Koilaghat Building fire. He was in the second fire engine, one of his colleagues said.

According to Bej’s colleagues, he was part of many fire-fighting efforts, including the one that broke out at the Bagri market a few years back. Bej was also part of a team that had cleared roads and streets of areas including Esplanade, Park Street of trees that had been uprooted during Cyclone Amphan. He was also part of a team that carried out a fire inspection at The 42, a colleague said.

According to another colleague, Bej had a weakness for betel leaves and would always carry around ten betel leaves in his pocket and pop one before heading out to a fire call.

His fondness for fish curry is also well-known among his co-workers and he would often cook for them too.

Gourab Bej

The injured

Utpal Acharya, 56

Works for: Eastern Railway as a senior section engineer in the telecommunications department

Acharya is admitted at BR Singh Hospital with burns. Police said Acharya had gone inside the building to retrieve some documents. He was rescued by the Railway Protection Force personnel from the 13th floor.

“He is admitted in the burns unit of the hospital. His condition is stable,” said Kamal Das Deo, the spokesperson for Eastern Railway.