In West Bengal, over a thousand shops were reportedly destroyed in a massive fire last night in Kolkata’s Khidirpur market area. The fire broke out around 2 in the early morning. More than 20 fire tenders brought the blaze under control.
According to the fire department, various shops, including rice godowns, have been destroyed. West Bengal Minister of Fire and Emergency Services, Sujit Basu, visited the spot and assured all necessary help. Local residents alleged that the delay in the arrival of the fire tenders increased the severity of the fire.
“All the shopowners are now sitting here helplessly, we have lost everything. This is a massive failure of the authorities. The fire gutted our lifetime of work,” a distressed shopowner said after his shop was burnt down in the massive blaze.
He also accused that the fire engines were ill-prepared, many fire tenders did not have enough water. This sentiment was echoed by many shopowners present at the fire site
Locals have accused that the fire department was late respond to their distress calls which made the situation worse and spread the fire across the whole market. The locals said the fire started around 1 a.m., but the locals accused that the fire engines came after over an hour.