Several women whose rooms in a women’s hostel in central Kolkata were gutted in a fire went back home early on Saturday.
Uncertainty hangs over when they can return to the city to resume work or their classes.
The women are residents of the two rooms that were destroyed in the fire on Friday on the campus of Lee Memorial Mission on Raja Subodh Mullick Square Road, a stone’s throw from Lenin Sarani.
On Friday night, the residents of the two rooms stayed at a youth centre in Moulali, before leaving for their homes.
One of the women, a teacher in her 30s, went back to her home in Asansol after collecting some of her belongings from one of the charred rooms.
The teacher was in her school off Lenin Sarani when the fire broke out on Friday morning. Much later in the afternoon, she collected some of her belongings from the room and shifted them to a colleague’s place.
“She left for her home in Asansol,” said an official of Lee Memorial Mission.
The boarders are from outside the city and live in the women’s hostel to pursue higher education or work in the city.
The two rooms have been sealed, the official added.
“There was no electricity in that portion of the building on Friday night. So, some of the women stayed at Yuba Kendra, Moulali. On Saturday some of them went home. Some of them have been accommodated on the premises in the same hostel,” said Reverend Kamalaksha Sardar, district superintendent, Methodist Church, Kolkata district, and vice-chairman of the Lee Memorial Mission.
The campus houses several facilities — Lee Memorial Girls’ High School, a primary school, a school up to Class VIII, a girls’ hostel and a women’s hostel where the fire broke out.
Fire department officials said electricity had been resumed to other portions of the building, barring the affected wing.
“Power is yet to be restored to the portion of the women’s hostel where the rooms got gutted and a few other adjoining rooms. We intend to replace the wiring and then restore electricity to that portion,” the official of Lee Memorial Mission said.
A team of forensic experts is scheduled to visit the hostel on Monday to collect samples.
Police officers said they were awaiting the forensic report to identify the exact cause of fire.
“Preliminary investigation suggests the fire was possibly because of an electrical short circuit,” said a fire department official.
