Fire continues to rage in Kolkata's Bagree Market even after 19 hours, 30 fire tenders engaged in battling the blaze

An official of state fire and emergency services department said that third, fourth and fifth floors of the six-storey building are still on fire.

"We have heard sounds of explosions from these three floors which indicates that several gas cylinders were stored there and besides air conditioning machines, those gas or chemical containing cylinders are also going off due to extreme heat," the official told IBNS.

"We have brought a small hydraulic ladder and we are trying our best to use that at the congested area," he added.

Earlier at around 2:30 am. on Sunday, a major fire broke out on the ground floor of six-storey commercial building under Hare Street Police Station limits in central Kolkata's Canning Street area and it spread to other floors quickly as several inflammable objects were stored there.  

Senior officials of city police, Director General of West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services, Jagmohan, and Kolkata Mayor and state fire services minister Sovan Chatterjee visited the scene on Sunday early morning.

"Firefighters are trying their best to douse the blaze and prevent the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings," Sovan Chatterjee told IBNS.

"After bringing the fire under control, we will probe into the reason behind the massive blaze," Chatterjee said.

A fire and emergency services official said that the fire might have started due to a short-circuit in an electricity distribution box inside the building.

After visiting the site, Fire services DG Jagmohan told IBNS, "It's a huge fire and firefighting operation has become more difficult here as several inflammable objects are stored inside the multi-storey market," Fire services DG Jagmohan told IBNS.

"Our men are trying their best fearlessly to bring the blaze under control and we are expecting that it will take another day to douse the blaze completely," Jagmohan said.

"No civilian has been injured so far in the incident while two of our firemen were minorly hurt during firefighting operations," the official added.

Local businessmen and residents, however, demanded deployment of Indian Army's firefighting unit to extinguish the blaze as early as possible.

"It's been more than 12 hours since the fire has started and state fire department could not douse the blaze as they have shortage of modern equipment to fight such huge fire incidents," a local trader told IBNS.

"We are demanding deployment of Indian Army's special fire extinguishing team here, because they use foam to bring fire under control and usage of foam is very much necessary in this situation," he added.

According to locals, hundreds of shops inside the building have been gutted completely due to the fire.

"Just a month before Durga puja, products and machinery worth several crore rupees have been gutted in the major fire outbreak,"  a trader told IBNS.

Meanwhile, to assist fire and emergency services department in firefighting operations, Kolkata Traffic Police had closed several nearby roads, including Rabindra Sarani in between M.G. Road & Podder Court and Canning Street in between Brabourne Road & Rabindra Sarani, to vehicular traffic.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)