After battling for more than three days, the army and firebrigade on Monday night brought under control the blaze in a multi-storeyed building in the country’s biggest wholesale market in Burrabazar here when this report was filed.

“We have taken control of the situation now and hopefully we will be able to put out the fire,” Lt Col Sanjeev Kumar Vohra of the Army (Ordinance) Depot, Panagarh, said.

Fire brigade sources said the fire in eight out of the 13 floors of Nandaram Market had been put out and the flames in the remaining four floors had been restricted from spreading.

“To control the fire, which broke out on Friday night, we are spraying foam. We had earlier thought of using carbon dioxide but since we needed a huge amount, we settled for foam,” said Vohra who has been on the scene for the last two days with a 50-member army team, including 12 fire-fighting experts assisting the 300 men of the fire brigade.

He said the fire-fighters had to break the shutters of 970 shops in the 13-storeyed market to take control of the fire in individual shops.

The army fire-fighters attempted to climb to the ninth floor but were beaten back by the heat, he said. One fire brigade officer lost one of his eyes while fighting the blaze and one of his colleagues sustained burn injuries.
The delay in extinguishing the blaze sparked anger among traders who attacked mediapersons and damaged Outdoor Broadcasting vans and cameras claiming that a proper picture of the losses suffered was not being given.

A special 42-metre SkyLift requisitioned from the Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd that arrived on the scene on Monday evening raised the hopes of fire brigade men and hundreds of local residents that the blaze could be brought under control with a combined spray of foam and water cannons from the elevated height.

An IAF chopper has been kept ready to assist the fire-fighting operation as nearly 300 fire personnel and 30 army jawans have been battling the blaze from the ninth floor onwards, West Bengal Fire Minister Pratim Chatterjee said.

Earlier in the day, army jawans deployed on Sunday, temporarily had withdrew from the scene, bitterly complaining against the state fire department personnel. While the minister declined to confirm the allegation against his men, home secretary P R Roy conceded that there was lack of coordination between army and state fire fighters.

A high-level probe into the fire has already been ordered, Roy added.