from www.thestatesman.org
40 offices gutted in Calcutta fire - STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
CALCUTTA, July. 4 - Three persons were injured and more than 40 offices damaged in a fire that broke out on the mezzanine floor of a multi-storeyed office building at 1 India Exchange Place this afternoon. The building houses 200 offices, mostly of stock brokers. The fire was first noticed at noon by Mr Debasish Bhattacharya, an electrician. "I noticed smoke billowing from one of the offices on the mezzanine floor. I immediately ran out and raised an alarm," he said. A few seconds later, a youth rushed out of the building with his clothes on fire. Identified as Benjamin Christopher, the youth works for a computer firm. He was rushed to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital with 60 per cent burns. "There was no power supply to the building throughout the afternoon and labourers were carrying out repair work with candles," a senior Fire Brigade official said. So the fire was not caused by a short circuit.
Initially 19 fire-tenders were pressed into service but Fire Brigade officials demanded 10 more. The fire was yet to be doused completely till late in the evening. Most of the offices damaged in the fire on the mezzanine floor were of stock brokers and "important files and computers were destroyed". Fire Brigade personnel said the main server of the computer, connecting the the PCs in the building to other offices in the city too was destroyed.
"Fortunately, the fire broke out on a Sunday, otherwise many people could have been killed in a stampede. We've lost valuable data and files in the fire," said the promoter of Prudential group of companies, Mr Vinod Baid, who has an office in the building. He was arrested recently for defaulting on payments to debtors. he was released on bail. Exactly a year ago, a fire had broken out in the same building. Though the fire was brought under control, no efforts were made to restrict the mushrooming of offices in the building.
Initially, fire fighters had a tough time ascertaining the source of the fire as most of the wooden mezzanine floor had caved in. "It's very difficult to gauge the cause of the fire. It will take us a long time to bring things under control," said the director of the Fire Services Directorate, Mr BB Pathak. Even with gas masks, fire fighters found it difficult to enter the building because of the extreme heat. Apart from stock broker offices, the building has offices of the SE Railways and a group-D staff quarters of the Standard Chartered bank which was unscathed. An Indian Airlines office on the ground floor was also damaged.