A massive fire at Kolkata's Stephen Court, a heritage building in the heart of Kolkata, has killed 24 people and left about 18 injured, eight of whom are critical.
Firemen recovered 17 bodies overnight as they went from door to door on the 5th, 6th and 7th floor of the building. Only 12 of these bodies have been identified so far.
Stephen Court is a 150-year-old building on Park Street, home to two of the city's best known restaurants - the iconic Flury's and Peter Cat.
The fire began at 2.15 pm on Tuesday. It was brought under control at about 10.30 pm.
Initial findings suggest a short circuit or cylinder burst may have caused it.
The fire, that may have started in a lift between the 5th and 6th floors soon spread upwards and sideways, forcing people out of windows onto narrow parapets and ledges as they waited to be rescued. Reports said at least one woman missed her step and fell five floors below.
"We saw a lady jumping off, but she missed the AC she was aiming for and crashed down", an eyewitness Raja Guha, said.
For over four hours, over 100 firemen battled the Park Street inferno with rescue operations hampered by lack of equipment, massive crowds and even traffic.
The first four fire engines arrived at the spot soon after the fire started from the nearby Free School Street fire station. But they could do little as they did not have the equipment needed to tackle the fire.
Meanwhile, panicky people trapped in the building tried to escape by climbing down rickety ladders or even a rope. Hydraulic ladders were needed to transport fire personnel to the higher floors where the fire raged, but these took more than an hour to get to the site as the fire engines equipped with the ladders were stored in not-so-close Behala.
The police said some of the delays were unavoidable. "The hydraulic ladders which were critical to the rescue were stored in Behala. It takes time through Kolkata's traffic to reach from Behala to Park Street," said Joint Commissioner of Police Javed Shamim.
West Bengal Minister for Fire and Emergency Services, Pratim Chatterjee too pointed out that in Kolkata traffic, "It takes one hour to cover a 15 km journey, that is why the delay took place in the fire tenders reaching there."
Even as the fire raged, the blame game had begun. Trinamool leader and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjie, the first politician to reach the scene of the fire, wanted answers. "Where is the disaster management? There is none," she said.
There have been fires in Kolkata before, this being the third major one in less than two years, but there have not been any fatalities before this. As the 150-year-old building built by Kolkata's Armenian community went up in flames, it left behind many questions. Were fire safety norms callously ignored? Could precious lives have been saved?
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