Fire breaks out at closed chemical factory in North Kolkata, no casualties

Kolkata: A major fire broke out at a closed chemical factory in Chitpur in North Kolkata on Sunday afternoon, triggering panic in the locality due to the intensity of the blaze. No casualties had been reported till the time of filing the report.

Ten fire tenders were rushed to the spot and firefighters began efforts to bring the blaze under control on a war footing.

The fire reportedly broke out at around 12.30 pm. As several chemicals were stored inside the closed factory, the flames spread rapidly. Several other factories in the adjoining area also have inflammable materials stored on their premises, raising fears that the fire could spread to neighbouring locations.

However, the situation remained largely under control, with no casualties or extensive damage reported so far.

“Our primary aim is to restrict the fire within the particular closed factory premises and prevent it from spreading to other adjacent factories. In addition, the area where the factory is located is extremely congested and the approach roads are very narrow. This is an additional hurdle for extinguishing the fire at the earliest. But we are trying to bring the fire under control as early as possible,” a state Fire Services Department official present at the spot said.

Initially, firefighters attempted to douse the flames by pumping water from outside through hosepipes. At the same time, efforts were launched to remove the chemicals stored inside the factory.

After some effort, firefighters managed to reach the source of the fire. The exact cause of the blaze, however, remained unclear.

“Initially, it seems that the source of the fire was the highly inflammable chemical stored within the factory,” the Fire Services Department official said.

The incident comes after West Bengal witnessed two major hotel fires last month that claimed a total of 18 lives, with nine deaths reported in each incident.

The first fire occurred at Hotel Bideshini in Tarapith in Birbhum district, killing nine people. The second incident took place at Hotel Shikha Inn on Mirza Ghalib Street in central Kolkata, where nine people, including seven Bangladeshi residents, were killed.

With IANS inputs