Kolkata: A cattle shed, adjacent to the wall of the decorator's godown, had a miraculous escape from the leaping flames that reduced the two ashes.
The shed houses about 50 cattle – 30 buffaloes and 20 cows. As the blaze raged on, the cattle owner kept pouring water around the shed to keep flames from reaching the place. Most of the animals have since been shifted out.
"We usually guard the cattle at night to keep an eye out for thieves. Around 2.30 am, Birender Rai, who looked after the cattle at night, called to say the decorator's godown next to our shed was up in flames. I rushed out and started pumping water from the water body behind the shed. I heard a loud explosion, something like a cylinder blast. We were frightened that the fire would rip through the shed, killing the cattle," said Birendra Kumar Yadav, a Kharki resident and owner of the shed, which was built about 10 years ago.
"I dialled 101, but the call went to the fire brigade in Budge Budge, and the person who received the call asked me to call up the fire brigade in Kolkata. Someone else, too, called the fire brigade, and the fire engines reached the after an hour. By then, everything in the godown was gutted," Yadav said.
"Sometimes I remain at the cattle shed at night and sometimes my workers stay at night. If I was not there that night, I don't know what would have happened to my buffaloes and cows, the source of my family's bread and butter," he said.
The cattle shed owner also repented that if he had equipment, he could have started putting water at the epicentre of the fire, which was at a stone's throw from there.
"There was a kitchen in the godown and the fire seemed to have started there. The entire area was covered in thick plumes of smoke and nothing but flames were visible. I constantly sprinkled water with a small pipe used for bathing the cattle to ward off the leap of the fire towards the shed. For the whole night, the cattle were kept out on the open land in front of the shed," said Yadav.