Factories gutted as ‘blast’ triggers fire in Dum Dum
Times of India | 13 July 2024
Kolkata: A suspected blast triggered a massive fire in an ice-cream factory in a Dum Dum industrial complex. The fire engulfed at least three neighbouring factories, including a hosiery manufacturing unit and medicine godowns in the wee hours of Friday. Locals panicked. It took more than 12 hours to extinguish the blaze even as around 30 fire engines were pressed into the service.
According to local sources, more than 1,200 people may lose their jobs as hosiery, ice-cream, and chemical factories along with a printing press and some godowns in the Mall Road industrial complex off Jessore Road at Dum Dum’s Nagerbazar weregutted.
Police, however, said no one was injured in the fire. The extent of the damage was yet to be ascertained, cops said. According to local sources, around 3.30am an explosion occurred in the ice-cream factory, causing the fire. “We heard the sound of a blast coming from the ice-cream factory. The massive flames immediately spread to the adjoining hosiery factory and other manufacturing units and warehouses. A thick blanket of smoke had enveloped the entire area,” said Tamal Chakraborty, a local priest.
Police teams from Dum Dum and Nagerbazar police stations and fire tenders rushed to the spot. The workers, who were in hosiery factory, were immediately evacuated.
According to police sources, there were several gas cylinders in a warehouse adjacent to the ice-cream factory. “Preliminary, we suspect that the fire originated from an adjacent ice-cream factory,” a senior police officer of the Barrackpore commissionerate, said. State fire minister, Sujit Bose, monitored the firefighting operation. “The exact cause behind the fire is yet to be ascertained. A probe is on. The fire spread rapidly due to the presence of inflammable materials. There are reports of explosions occurring on the premises,” Bose said.