Massive fire at Acropolis Mall, none injured

Kolkata: Three days following an inferno at a shuttered restaurant in the Park Street vicinity, another blaze erupted on Friday morning, this time at a food court on the third floor of the Acropolis Shopping Mall situated in the Kasba area.

Fortunately, no one was injured as 15 fire tenders wrangled the flames to bring them under control in about two hours.

Visitors and staff were safely evacuated, making their way out through a thick blanket of smoke.

State Fire and Emergency Services minister, Sujit Bose who visited the mall to take stock of the situation, said: “The fire has been controlled and the cooling process is being carried out. An enquiry along with a forensic examination will be done. We will summon the Mall authority.”

Sources stated that around noon on Friday, a fire broke out at a stall in the food court and within moments, the flames began to spread.

The staff of the Mall, along with employees from the offices in the same building, were evacuated safely. However, several employees, it was learnt, claimed that the fire exit was cluttered with various objects, narrowing the passage and complicating the evacuation.

Consequently, people encountered difficulties while descending the stairs. Eventually, the entire mall was engulfed in a thick blanket of smoke.

Within a short span, 15 fire tenders were deployed in phases. Initially, firefighters struggled to reach the fire’s source amid dense black smoke.According to officials, some firefighters had to don oxygen masks to enter the building and hydraulic ladders were also used in the operation.

To alleviate the smoke that engulfed the premises, several glass panes of the mall had to be broken. The entire area was enveloped in smoke and traffic movement in front of the Mall was regulated, informed a senior officer of the Kolkata Traffic Police.

Later in the day, Acropolis Mall authority through a statement claimed that after the fire broke out, the Mall management team immediately took preventive measures and the smoke extraction system was put on. The fire pumps were also activated. The occupants in the building were evacuated safely. No casualty took place.

Krishna Jha, senior operations manager of Acropolis Mall, said: “We have been running the Mall successfully for the last nine years and no such untoward incident happened before. We will take adequate measures to find out what exactly happened and conduct an internal investigation. We are very thankful that no casualties happened. We are trying to restore normalcy as early as possible.” Senior police officers were also present at the spot.

Normal vehicular movement was later restored on Rajdanga Main Road in front of the shopping Mall, a police officer said.