Fire in India's largest wholesale market doused

The devastating blaze at Burrabazar, India's largest wholesale market, in Kolkata was on Wednesday brought under 'complete control' after about 90 hours of fire-fighting operations.

"The fire has been almost doused. But there may be some flickers left," fire brigade sources told PTI.

The fire brigade personnel were now spraying water jets to cool the overheated upper floors of the Nandaram Market, where the blaze broke out in the early hours of Saturday destroying over 3,000 shops as it spread from building to building in the congested commercial hub.

"Our personnel have now entered the top floor of Nandaram market. We are splashing water to bring down the temperature so that experts like the Kolkata Municipal Corporation engineers can enter and ascertain the damage to the building," fire brigade sources said.

Meanwhile, the army team from the Panagarh ammunition depot, which was called in to help in controlling the fire, returned to its base on Wednesday morning.

"While 16 members of the 50-strong team went back to Panagarh on Tuesday, the remaining personnel left on Wednesday," Lt Col (Ordnance) of the Panagarh Ammunition Depot, S K Vohra told PTI.

"Our job is over. The fire is totally under control," he said.

Asked why it took so long to control the blaze, he said, "There was a huge stock of inflammable material, including camphor, diesel, gas cylinders, synthetic clothes and petroleum and pharma products which made our task difficult."

Vohra said the fire fighters also did not get proper space to control the blaze due to large number of shops in the vicinity.