Fire ravages commercial towers in Kanpur, nearly 800 shops gutted

At least 800 shops were gutted in a massive fire that broke out in a multi-storey commercial building and quickly spread to adjacent towers in the Bansmandi area here early Friday, a senior official said.

Despite the continuous efforts of fire officials of Kanpur and its nearby districts, the fire could not be doused even till late evening, officials said.

Prime facie the fire broke out due to a short circuit following a massive dust storm.

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The blaze started at 2 am in AR Tower also known as Afaq Rasool Tower and spread to Maqsood, Humraz complex and Nafees towers charing about 800 shops located in these four towers, the official said, adding strong winds fanned the flames.

"It has been over 20 hours since we started dousing off the fire. As many as 60 fire tenders have been pressed into operation and they have been refilled over 400 times altogether to put the fire out," said BP Jogdand police commissioner.

According to the senior official, goods and cash worth about Rs 150 crore have been gutted in the blaze.

A four-member committee headed by Additional DM (Finance and Revenue) Rajesh Kumar and comprising Additional Municipal Commissioner, Joint Director Trade Tax and chief fire officer as members have been formed to probe the incident and assess the losses, said District Magistrate Vishal G Ayyar.

The committee has been formed following instructions of Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak who also inspected the incident site and met the shopkeepers whose shops and establishments were destroyed in the blaze, DM added.

The deputy CM personally inspected the situation and assured all possible help to the businessmen.

Interacting with media persons, he said the efforts were being made to control the fire first and then to ensure that no person is harmed during the operation.

"Our government stands with the businessmen in this hour of sorrow and we will not leave them (businessmen) alone," Pathak said further.

The divisional commissioner and police commissioner have been asked to submit a report to the government jointly about the damage caused due to the fire. There should be no politics, Pathak said.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav tweeted that the fire in the cloth market was another huge blow to the traders who are already facing the brunt of demonetisation, GST raids and recession.

Yadav in his tweet requested the UP government to announce compensation after assessing the loss caused to the traders.

An SOS call was made to all neighbouring districts, including Kanpur Dehat, Unnao, Lucknow and Kannauj, to dispatch fire tenders to assist in the operation, he said, adding firemen have successfully prevented the fire from further spreading.

Joint Commissioner of Police (law and order) Anand Prakash Tiwari told PTI that several fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the fire which is yet to be doused.

The shops in all four towers have been gutted and goods worth crores were completely destroyed, the JCP said.

"The building didn't adhere to fire safety norms," another official said.