A major tragedy was averted when firefighters rescued several people from a five-storey building in Kolkata after a massive fire broke out on Thursday morning.
The fire started on the fourth floor of the building, located at 12 Pretoria Street in the posh neighbourhood of South Kolkata, around 11.40 a.m.
State Fire Minister Sovon Chatterjee said 12 people trapped inside the building were rescued. Eight of them had to be hospitalised.
Firefighters had to smash the building’s glass exterior to allow the smoke to escape.
Hydraulic ladders were used to rescue people trapped in the building.
Sushmita Bhattacharya Chatterjee, the local councillor of Ward number 63 where the building was located, said what was most worrisome was that Abhinav Bharati High School was located next to the building where the fire broke out.
‘Students evacuated’
“Our first challenge was to evacuate the students to safety,” the local councillor said.
So far, the cause of the fire is not clear but some eyewitnesses said they heard an explosion.
Those trapped said they were stuck in the building for almost half an hour before being rescued.
“I rushed to the terrace and was stuck there for about 35-45 minutes with two others until the fire brigade men arrived and rescued us” said Goutam Bude, one of the survivors.
Asked about the functioning of the fire alarms, Shekh Sona, a security guard in the building, said there were a total 11 offices in the building and before the fire alarm could go off, they had switched off the mains and alerted the office-dwellers manually.
