Major fire breaks out in Kolkata slum
As the city celebrated the festival of lights and crackers, several shanties were gutted in a major fire that broke out on Friday in the number 3 Kalikapur slum area under the Tiljala police station in the southern fringes of Kolkata.
Five fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, police said.
No casualties or injuries have been reported so far, police added.
The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, however, it is being believed that crackers might have led to the mishap.
”The fire broke out around 7 pm and rapidly spread to the nearby houses. The fire tenders came to the rescue around 8 pm aggravating the situation. Many of the slum children could not be traced as yet,” Kannan Middey, a slum dweller told IBNS.
The area housed approximately 600 families with 1,000 dwellers.