An early morning fire gutted a godown of a film studio in Tollygunge in south Kolkata on Thursday and 15 fire tenders struggled to bring it under control for several hours. Police said no one was injured.
The fire broke out in a tin shed godown that belonged to Eskay Movie around 6.50am. It was located on 27E/17 Baburam Ghosh Road. It was packed with film reels, props made of plywood, wooden furniture and different kinds of inflammable items.
The heat generated from the fire left a concrete wall cracked. “A forensic team will visit the spot to assess the exact cause of the fire.
Apparently the godown was stacked with several inflammable articles and we will check if adequate fire-fighting measures were in place or not,” fire service minister Sujit Bose said.
Bose and power minister and Trinamul’s Tollywood minder Aroop Biswas were on the site during the firefight.
Eyewitnesses like residents from a housing complex nearby told the police that the fire kept spreading fast and the heat blew the tin shed away. Some local residents joined hands to arrange for water after informing fire stations in Tollygunge and Bansdroni.
Four fire tenders initially reached, responding to a call for help, and struggled to move down the narrow road leading to the godown, some onlookers said. Some of them alleged that the tenders turned up quite late, a charge that Bose later ruled out.
As hours rolled by, the fire continued to spread across the godown, stacked with electrical items and wires along with clothing materials, cans of films and adhesives.
Within an hour the area was filled with thick black fumes and some of the residents said they were alarmed at the cracker-like sound of items bursting inside the godown.
Fire fighters armed with hose pipes first broke open the godown and then reached the top to ensure that the leaping flames did not reach adjoining houses. “Some of the fire pockets were successfully doused in the late evening,” said a fire department official.
