"My Minister for Disaster Management, Mayor of Kolkata and Kolkata Police Commissioner have acted on time and averted a disaster," the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee tweeted within minutes after the fire was completely doused in the landmark Chatterjee International Centre on Tuesday.
The 24 floor building, one of the oldest high-rises of Kolkata, with many public and private offices, caught fire early in the morning. Twenty-Five engines were “immediately” pressed into service and no casualty was reported, the fire officials said.
The incident was first reported at around 8.30 am in the 16th floor of the building and spread to the next floors, as the engines allegedly reached the area, about half a kilometer from city’s prominent Park Street tri-junction, “little late.” Two of the offices were gutted.
Speaking to reporters Javed Khan, the Minister in Charge of Disaster Management, who reached the spot within a couple of hours, said that no one was trapped inside the building.
“We have been able to bring the fire under control after nearly four hours,” a fire brigade official who was present at the spot told The Hindu .
A woman who came down from the seventh floor of the building said she was stuck in the elevator. “The lift was moving up and down and then as it finally stopped in one of the floors, we rushed out,” the woman, who works in a private company, said.
While dousing the flames four fire fighters suffered minor burn injuries and some of them were hospitalised due to suffocation. Four people, who were present in the building at the time of fire, were also hospitalised. However, none were suffering of any breathing problem, trauma or related injury, officials said.
Chatterjee International Centre is one of the oldest high rises of Kolkata, which was completed in 1976. The nearly 300 feet high building has 24 floors.
