A fire broke out in Kolkata’s Dhapa area near Basanti Highway on Wednesday afternoon. The fire broke out in a warehouse of a plastic factory near the bypass and spread quickly. Locals claimed that several shanties around the plastic factory have been burnt to ashes.

Local residents say that the fire first broke out in the warehouse of the factory in the Dhapa area on Wednesday afternoon. The warehouse had a lot of plastic products stored in it due to which the fire spread rapidly from there. The fire department was informed. However, locals allege that the fire spread more because the fire brigade failed to arrive on time. However, according to the fire brigade, four engines left for the spot as soon as the information was received. The fire brigade reached the spot a little after 3 pm.

What caused the fire?

The fire was reportedly triggered by highly flammable materials stored inside the godown, situated roughly 300 metres from JW Marriot Kolkata.

After the fire was noticed, the local residents tried to douse it by drawing water from the pond. But due to the high intensity of the fire, it spread to the nearby huts. Locals claim that several huts were burnt to ashes in no time. It is still unclear how the warehouse caught fire. Firefighters said the exact cause of the fire will be investigated.

Repeated fire incidents near EM Bypass

This year, there have been three fires in this part of the city near the EM Bypass. On April 26, a transformer exploded near Dhapa and caught fire. The fire was brought under control after 15 fire engines tried for about two hours. Before that, on February 15, a garage in Arupota along the EM Bypass caught fire. Several cars parked in the garage were burnt in the fire. During the fire in February, local residents suddenly saw smoke coming out of the garage. When they got closer, they saw that the cars were burning. The fire had spread to several cars one after the other.

Khidirpur market fire

Over 1300 shops were destroyed in a massive fire in Kolkata’s Khidirpur market area last month and it took more than 20 fire tenders to bring the blaze under control. Several shops, including rice godowns, were destroyed. There are several oil godowns and warehouses/shops having combustible goods in that area which caused the fire to spread at a rapid pace. Also, the area is congested, which made dousing the fire even more difficult and it kept burning in several pockets till the following morning.