Another city inferno kills 20

Tragedy at dawn Illegal building, no firefighting equipment, one exit recipe for disaster.

Kolkata relived the horrors of the AMRI hospital and Stephen Court fires after a devastating blaze in a wholesale paper and plastic products market in the heart of the city killed at least 20 people on Wednesday.

Thick black smoke from the pre-dawn fire swirled through two floors of a six-storey building on Surya Sen Street close to Sealdah station in central Kolkata, suffocating shop workers and labourers sleeping in the corridors lined with tens of stalls and small shops stacked high with plastic plates and cutlery, and paper and thermocol products used in weddings or festivals.

The building, which came up in 1995, was illegal, and Kolkata Municipal Corporation had demolished parts of it earlier. It had no fire-fighting equipment and only one entry and exit — a staircase that was filled with smoke. Four people were rescued and taken to hospital. One woman was among the dead.

According to police, the Fire Brigade and area residents, the fire started at 3.20 am, probably after a refrigerator burst into flames following an electrical short-circuit. It fed on inflammable material, chemicals and over 50 cooking gas cylinders as it raced through the mezannine and first floors of the building, and burnt for about 10 hours.

A little over a year ago, in December 2011, over 90 people — mostly hospital patients — had suffocated following the AMRI fire in Dhakuria in south Kolkata. Earlier, in March 2010, 43 people died after a fire broke out in Stephen Court building on Park Street.

Area resident Mohammed Imran said he saw smoke coming out of windows around 3.30 am. He said he tried to enter the house but failed, and could see bodies on the mezzanine floor. The police and Fire Brigade reached at 4.40 am, he said.

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