Kolkata railway building fire kills 9

Massive fire broke out in a multistory building in Kolkata on MondayANI

The toll in the fire that broke out at the Eastern Railway office building in Kolkata's Strand Road on Monday night mounted to nine with two more bodies recovered from the building. Those who were killed included firefighting personnel and one policeman.

India’s union minister Piyush Goyal expressed his condolences at the tragedy and said a high-level inquiry team comprising of four Principal heads of Railway departments has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the fire.

The minister said that "all possible assistance has been provided by the Railways to the State government during this unfortunate fire accident. A high-level inquiry consisting of four principal heads of railway departments has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the fire."

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the site and announced Rs 1 million compensation for the next of kin of the deceased.

West Bengal fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose had earlier said: "Among the seven who died in today's fire are four firefighters, an assistant police sub-inspector, and two railway protection force officials."

The chief minister also alleged that no official from the railways had been on the scene.

"The property belongs to the railways but unfortunately I found no senior officer from the railway here, and we were not even provided a map of the old multi-storey office building."

Banerjee also said: "I don't want to do politics over the tragedy but no one from railways has come here."

Manoj Joshi, General Manager, Eastern Railway said: "Officers of railways were present there, efforts were being made for whatever was required. Maybe any map wasn't made available immediately, staff members of railways were present to guide about the building."

The fire broke out at the top floor of the 13-storied building here on Monday evening, according to a fire official.

Fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the blaze at the building.