1/1, Camac St shut but business as usual in neighbourhood restaurants & offices
Times of India | 13 June 2024
Kolkata: Life limped back to normal in the vicinity of 1/1, Camac Street where a fire gutted a resto-pub on Tuesday morning and disrupted normal activities around it as power connections were switched off and smoke forced people to evacuate from nearby buildings.
On Wednesday morning, people started trooping into their offices in the area with one eye on the gutted structure at the Park Street-Camac Street crossing.Several restaurants and party places that had asked employees to report to work on Wednesday geared up for the day’s business.
Before the build-up of office-hour traffic, cops removed guard rails from the crossing to allow free movement of vehicles. The lone fire tender that was parked outside the site of the blaze to deal with any emergency was also taken back to the fire station.
“I called up my manager in the morning to ask if I should go to office today. When the fire broke out, the power lines were snapped and the entire place was filled with smoke. Since they were cleaning up the place, employees were told to leave early,” said Gunjan Poddar, an executive in a share brokerage firm in Park Centre, the building next to 1/1, Camac Street.
Barbeque Nation on the ground floor of 24, Park Street opened at the usual time and other eateries in the vicinity, which had shut down on Tuesday, were open since Wednesday morning. “Several guests called up during the day to find out if we were open since it was a day after the fire. For us, it was business as usual on Wednesday,” said a representative of the restaurant.
At 1/1, Camac Street, the fire department was pumping out water. Another party point on the ground floor was also shut as there was no power in the building. “The cause of the fire will be ascertained. The place did not have fire safety measures. We are investigating it,” said a fire department official.