17 killed and many trapped injured in major fire at Kolkata market..

February 27, 2013 12:33
17 killed and many trapped injured in major fire at Kolkata market..

Seventeen people have died in the fire that broke out early this morning in a six-storey building on central Kolkata's congested Surya Sen Street. Seventeen people have been rescued and taken to hospital while many of them are in critical condition and there are fears that the toll could rise.

Moreover, the building, called Surya Sen market, houses shops and several plastic and paper godowns and most of the people who died were shop owners.  According to the witnesses, that among the dead, was also an old destitute woman who had been given shelter inside the building.

In fact, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the site a short while ago and was briefed about the fire; just before she arrived, many people in blue hats with rescue written on them appeared. They were not there during the many hours that 20 fire tenders fought the fire, which broke out at about 3.50 this morning even that the fire-fighting and rescue operations were hampered by the heavy smoke in the narrow lanes leading to the building on fire. Also, there was only one exit in the building, which was reportedly blocked for some time due to the fire.

As the fact remains, the exact cause of the fire is not known yet but initial reports suggest there might have been a short circuit on the first floor, in an eatery. It seems that the very old building has tangles of electricity wires hanging outside and dark, cramped corridors inside all fire hazards.

According to West Bengal's Fire Minister Javed Khan, it was an unauthorised building, and that Kolkata alone had about eight lakh of those making a crackdown very difficult and that they have filed hundreds of FIRs on such unauthorized and illegal markets and godowns, there is no laxity on part of the government. While Mr Khan also put the blame squarely on the previous Left regime of 34 years for allowing unauthorised construction.

As a matter of fact, Kolkata has witnessed several major fires in the last two years. The accident of December 2011, 94 patients and staffers death in a fire at the AMRI (Advanced Medicare Research Institute) Hospital was a real shock for Kolkata and for the Nation at large.

Negligence has always invited death for human life but still we don’t realize. Unfortunately innocents have to become the victim and loose life! Its really mournful!

(AW:Samrat Biswas)

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