Short-circuit fire spreads panic at Hungerford Street high-rise
Times of India | 18 January 2025
12 Kolkata: A fire broke out on a rooftop storeroom connected to a fifth-floor flat at a posh G+5 apartment building on Hungerford Street on Friday afternoon. This fire forced residents, several of them senior citizens, to rush downstairs by themselves or be carried by maids and nurses.
However, quick action by the building security guards and the fast arrival of firemen on six fire tenders restricted the blaze only to the storeroom. The flames were extinguished in half an hour, ensuring no one was injured. Though the cause of the fire is yet to be established, it is believed that a short-circuit led to it.
A plumber and an electrician working on the roof of an adjacent building were the first to spot the smoke and flames on the terrace of Santosh Apartments at 9, Hungerford Street. They alerted the security guards of the building. The security guards ran to the terrace with fire extinguishers and alerted residents, some of whom were already out in the stairway. A fifth-floor resident called the fire brigade at 1.20 pm.
"Moments after being alerted, we ran to the terrace and knocked on the door of each and every flat, alerting them about the fire and asking them to rush down. We also switched off the power supply and opened the sliding windows of the stairways to let the smoke out. I then knocked on flat 5C, which has an internal staircase up to the rooftop storeroom, but no one initially opened the door. We wondered if everyone was safe inside, and while I continuously knocked on the door, another guard called the daughter of the flat owner," said Swapan Kumar Mondal, the security supervisor.
Mondal said that some time later, a maid opened the door, and he entered the flat to douse the flames of the ceiling with a fire extinguisher. "A portion of the false ceiling came crashing down and injured my hand. I asked the other guards to safely take the family out," said Mondal.
The 2000 square feet flat at 5C belongs to an elderly BS Gujral, who was at the flat during that time with his wife and two domestic help. The elderly couple was safely brought out with the help of security guards and neighbours. Once the fire was doused, TOI spoke to Gujral's daughter, who said she was too traumatised to speak but confirmed her parents were safe.
The six-storeyed apartment has 20 flats — four on each floor — while the ground floor has multiple commercial establishments, including two offices, a spa, and a salon. The flames and smoke were visible from the AJC Bose Road flyover and high-rises in the neighbourhood that houses commercial establishments, schools, and a hospital. Traffic movement was halted on Hungerford Street briefly to allow free movement of fire tenders.
Residents said this was the third fire in the building in five years. "On Jan 27, 2019, our house caught fire from a short circuit in an old refrigerator. Our drawing room and a major part of the flat were gutted at that time. In Aug last year, there was a minor fire on the first floor of our building," said Veer Puri, a Class XI student and a resident of flat 2C.