19 killed in Kolkata market fire

Feb 28, 2013 - RAJIB CHOWDHURI |

Age Correspondent

At least 19 people, including an 80-year-old woman, were killed and several others sustained burn injuries as a massive fire gutted Surya Sen Market at Sealdah in central Kolkata in the early hours Wednesday. The toll is likely to rise further. This blaze comes just over a year after the AMRI catastrophe in December 2011, in which 93 people were killed.

West Bengal chief minister announced a “high-level probe” when she visited the site, and announced that the relatives of each of the dead would get compensation of `2 lakhs, while the injured would get `50,000 each.
The fire erupted at the six-storey commercial building, also known as “Pakistan Bazar”, at Surya Sen Street at around 3 am. Around 35 people were sleeping at the market, where highly combustible items were stored in shops and godowns on the first and second floors. Most of the victims were daily labourers. Shockingly, all gates were closed, leaving little scope for them to escape, the traders alleged. A few did manage to jump through the windows, but most of them could not.

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