Fire breaks out in central Kolkata office building

Blaze broke out at building which also houses offices of LIC, other financial firms

Up in flames: Smoke billows out of the 16th floor of Jeevan Sudha building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Kolkata on Thursday.

A massive fire broke out on Thursday on the 16th floor of a commercial building in central Kolkata, gutting the global market office of the State Bank of India (SBI).

Thirteen fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire that originated from the server room of the SBI’s global department at the Jeevan Sudha building, a fire brigade official said.

‘No fear of data loss’

“The furniture and computer peripherals were damaged in the fire, but there was no fear of data loss as the files were stored in the disaster recovery cells of Mumbai and the local head office in Kolkata,” the general manager (global market office) of SBI, Ventakesh Bharadwaj, said.

No one injured

The chief general manager (Kolkata circle) of SBI, P.P. Sengupta, said there was no news of anyone getting trapped on the floor.

Eyewitnesses said the fire was fast spreading to other floors of the building.

Although it was a holiday for Deepavali, the employees rushed to the site as soon as news of the fire spread, the general manager said.

The building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road has 19 floors and houses the offices of the SBI and the LIC and other financial organisations.