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Kolkata: Shopping mall in flames, fire fighting to go on at night

A massive fire broke out at Citi Mart in New Market area of central Kolkata on Sunday afternoon.

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A major fire broke out at a shopping mall in the New Market area in the heart of Kolkata on Sunday and even after 10 hours, it was not fully doused.

However, there was no report of any casualty or injury, state Disaster Management Minister Javed Khan said.

"The fire is under control and fire fighters are working hard to douse it completely," Khan told PTI. Though the major part of blaze has been doused, some still remained there in some pockets which needed to be put out, he said.

Altogether 27 fire tenders and sky-ladders were being used to reach the upper floors of the shopping plaza which was a cinema hall, 'Light House' in the past.
The fire was reported at 11.45 AM and it was suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit inside the godown of the mall this morning, a fire brigade official said.

The minister, however, said the exact reason behind the blaze was yet to be ascertained.

The fire originated in the ground floor from where it spread to the other floors of the building. And the huge stock of clothes, leather items and other inflammable materials added fuel to the fire, the official said.

Water was pumped from a nearby waterbody on Jawaharlal Nehru Road to douse the fire that, at one of time, was about to spread to the adjacent New Empire building, a fire brigade official said.

The fire in the ground floor was brought under control but reaching to the core of it in the third and fourth floors was tough because of which it took so much time to bring it under control, he said.

"Our operations will continue during the night and till we are sure that there is no fire even under the debris," the official said.

Meanwhile, there was controversy when a team of fire fighters from the Army visited the site to assist the state-run fire brigade. City Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who visited the site, said, "Nobody had asked for their (Defence Ministry's) help in sending a team of fire fighters. We have not sent them back but the situation was not that bad that we required the Army's help." 

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