Inferno in Kolkata’s Park Street kills two, injures many (Third Lead)

KOLKATA - At least two people were killed and scores trapped when a raging fire broke out in a landmark British-era building in the heart of Kolkata’s bustling Park Street Tuesday. The blaze in the top floors of the eight-storey commercial and apartment block could not be controlled even after four hours.

Eighteen people were injured in the fire at the Stephen Court building which houses the popular Peter Cat restaurant and is close to the iconic Flurys tea room, police said.

This was the third major fire in Kolkata in two years and the second in a metropolitan city. A fire in a multistoried office complex in Bangalore killed nine people on Feb 23.

Vivek Upadhyay, a call centre employee in the complex, and Vikash Aggarwal died of injuries sustained while jumping down the building. While Upadhyay died at SSKM Hospital, Agarwal passed away at the Calcutta National Medical College.

Forty fire tenders were battling to contain the blaze, which started in an elevator shaft in the commercial-cum-residential building on the city’s most well-known street that has famous restaurants, fashionable stores and major offices.

“At least 18 injured people have been removed from the building that has caught fire and one of them is in critical condition. They have been admitted to SSKM hospital,” Joint Commissioner of Police Jawed Shamin told IANS earlier.

“There are many people still inside the building. We hope to remove all of them from the building.”

There was a huge traffic snarl as gawking crowds collected on the arterial road, making it difficult for the fire tenders to access the building with their hydraulic lifts that finally rescued many people at least two hours after the fire broke out.

There were dramatic scenes as people tried desperately to clamber down the colonial building on ropes. People were seen calling for help with their mobile phones while perched precariously on the terrace or on ledges. Some were waving for help from grilled windows.

Firefighters could be seen using several ladders and breaking windows to enter the building from Flurys side and rescue the people, including some old women, trapped inside.

A common passage connects Peter Cat, Music World and Flurys.

An air-conditioner on fire could be seen falling from the building.

“It is an old building. It will take some time to put it out,” said Pratim Chatterjee, fire services minister.

The cause of the fire has not yet been ascertained.

“Fire tenders are working with precision. Forensic experts will investigate about the cause of this disastrous fire,” Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said.

“We will pull down the building after the fire is doused to avoid any further injury or accident from the falling slabs of the building,” he said.