When leaping flames engulfed their office

KOLKATA - The lights flickered and then it turned dark. But no one in the top floor offices in the Stephen Court building could have imagined that soon thick smoke and leaping flames would surround them.

Almost seven hours after a raging fire broke out in the eight-storeyed building on Park Street in the heart of the city here Tuesday, some of the injured and unhurt survivors recalled the incident, still overwrought by the traumatic experience.

A middle aged woman, who returned home after being treated at a private nursing home, recalling the fire said: “Suddenly lights started flickering in my office and then it went off. We went out and thought of going downstairs when we found the staircase enveloped by thick fumes and it was suffocating.

“We advanced towards the fire escape but broken glass started falling from the top.”

“Then we decided to get into our office once again, and five of us stood on the unstable iron structure of the airconditioning machine on the outer wall of the building. Every minute seemed like hours,” she said.

“While standing on the iron structure I saw a man falling from top and dying in front of our eyes,” she said as her eyes welled-up with tears.

“Then some people I have never met earlier helped us come down from the sixth floor. They climbed up the pipes and gave me a rope and I came down with their support.”

Another person who was being taken to hospital in a stretcher, said: “The fire was huge. We had to jump.”

The fire broke out around 1 p.m. Tuesday in the top two floors of the eight-storey Stephen Court, a commercial-cum-residential building.

“Nothing was visible even within one foot distance. I have seen some of my colleagues die before my eyes,” said another man, who was rescued from the building.

Locals complained that the fire brigade reached the spot late despite its headquarter being located nearby. “They could have been here at least half an hour earlier. Then fewer lives would have been lost,” said a youth, helping in the rescue operations.

At least six people were killed, 20 injured and scores trapped when a fire broke out in the British-era building Stephen Court in the heart of Park Street Tuesday. The blaze could be controlled only after a five-hour firefight.

Traffic came to a standstill in and around the area.

Two eye-witnesses who had seen the leaping flames from their office located near Stephen Court and captured images on their mobile phones said: “We have seen two men and one woman fall from the fifth floor of the building.”

“We wish we hadn’t seen any incident like this,” they said.

Another person, who works in that area, said: “I have rescued four-five people myself with the help of a rope.”