186-year-old Parsi fire temple ‘structurally sound, can be restored’: KMC engineers
Telegraph | 4 January 2026
The 186-year-old Parsi fire temple on Ezra Street, which was feared to have been badly damaged by a fire on its premises in November, remains “structurally stable” and can be “restored,” engineers from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said.
The fire on November 15 did not weaken the heritage structure, KMC engineers who inspected the temple said.
According to officials, the damage was limited to wooden doors and windows. Soot marks were found on the walls, and the ceiling of the portico may have suffered some damage.
An engineer not associated with the KMC said a building is considered structurally unstable only when its columns, beams or piers are compromised, often necessitating demolition. That is not the case with the fire temple.
KMC engineers said that the exposed brick walls lacking plaster were not a sign of structural weakness but the result of neglect and poor maintenance over the years.
“The building is structurally stable and can be fully restored. There is no need to pull it down,” said a senior KMC official.
Another official said the civic body had written to the administrator-general and official trustee of Bengal, who has been appointed by Calcutta High Court to manage the property for the time being, asking that restoration be initiated under the supervision of a conservation architect.
The Ezra Street fire temple is the first Parsi fire temple in the city and is listed as a Grade I heritage structure — the highest category — in the KMC’s Graded List of Heritage Buildings. It was built in 1839 by Rustomjee Cowasjee, a businessman and philanthropist, at a time when Calcutta had a thriving Parsi population.
A board at the entrance to the premises records that Dwarkanath Tagore, industrialist and grandfather of Rabindranath Tagore, was present at the inauguration of the temple.
Calcutta has another Parsi fire temple on Metcalfe Street, which continues to function. The Ezra Street temple, however, has been locked and embroiled in litigation for years, according to community members and KMC officials.
KMC sources said the civic body had approached the Parsi community before the November fire, urging better upkeep of the heritage structure, but received little response. The temple is run by a private trust.
Noomi Mehta, a prominent Parsi Calcuttan, said the wider community had limited say in the matter because a private trust runs it. “What legal standing do we have to do something about the structure? The private trustees have to show interest or at least appoint someone from the local community who is willing to run the fire temple,” Mehta said.
The Ezra Street structure has long ceased to function as a fire temple. “The sacred fire is no longer there. In a Parsi fire temple, the fire is never put out,” said Mehta, who is a senior trustee of the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community Religious and Charity Fund.
Over the years, rows of stalls have sprung up around the building, leaving only a narrow passage as an entry point to the structure. While stall owners claim tenancy rights, many others describe the establishments as illegal encroachments.
Mohammad Iftekar, secretary of the 26 Ezra Street Tenants Association, said some stalls had existed on the temple grounds for decades. “We used to pay rent to the trust. Since the 1990s, we have been depositing it at the rent controller’s office,” he said.
About 60 stall owners earlier operated from the premises. Since reopening after the fire, they have not been allowed to rebuild their stalls and are now sitting in the open with their wares. “The police told us the official trustee has asked them not to allow any construction on the premises,” Iftekar said.
Anjan Kumar Sarkar, administrator-general and official trustee of Bengal, told Metro that they had written to the KMC flagging encroachment on the property. “The high court has asked us to look after the property only for the time being,” he said.
Mehta said it was painful for the small remaining Parsi community to see the condition of the historic structure. There are now only about 350 Parsis in Calcutta. “We care about what happens to the fire temple, but we are not in a position to acquire or run it. Around 70% of Parsis left in the city are over 70 years old...,” he said. “We already struggle to maintain the functioning temple on Metcalfe Street with the dwindling number of Parsis here.”