I saw people jump to death: eyewitness

KOLKATA - “I saw two desperate people, unable to bear the soaring heat and fumes, cling on to the edge of the balcony and then jump to their death from the sixth floor,” said Rupa Ghosh, eyewitness to the fire tragedy in Kolkata’s Park Street Tuesday.

A 50-year-old employee of the OTS Transport Co, with its office on the second floor of Stephen Court, jumped one floor below when it seemed as if the fire would engulf her as well.

“I could hear the clattering of broken glasses in the upper floors. It seemed that the building would collapse.

“The fumes were choking. I found it difficult to breath. I looked down and saw a huge crowd had gathered. I knew I had to get out of this,” she said.

“I jumped first on the roof of first floor shops. Then I screamed and cried pleading with the fire brigade to rescue me. But they did not. After a long wait, a ladder was provided and I came down,” she said.

The central Kolkata resident was lucky. She was unhurt.

But a few of her colleagues were not. Manoj Ganguly, Shampa Chowdhury and Kajal Nath were in hospital with fractures in both their lower limbs. Some were injured in their arms.

“Around 1.15 p.m. we first sensed a burning smell. First we did not pay heed as a fire had broken out last year also. Then when the stench increased, we came to the balcony and found the two top floors in flames,” Ghosh said at Kolkata’s SSKM Hospital where her colleagues were admitted.

At least six people were killed when a raging fire broke out in a landmark British-era building in the heart of Kolkata’s Park Street Tuesday. The blaze in the top floors of the eight-storey commercial and apartment block left 18 people injured.

Ghosh complained that the fire brigade arrived very late.

“They only came at 2.30 p.m. But they were unable to rescue people as they had not brought any high ladder. The ladder came at only at 3.15.”