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Fire wrecks Presidency University lab

Staff Reporter

- Photo: Sushanta Patronobish.

Forensic experts examine the debris of Presidency University's chemistry research laboratory in Kolkata on Friday.

KOLKATA: The research laboratory of the Chemistry Department of Presidency University here was reduced to heaps of rubble, mangled wires and wrecked equipment in a fire that raged for four hours in the wee hours of Friday.

While there were no causalities or injuries, the nearly 20 research scholars working currently with the department have lost a lot of their work as a result of the fire.

Since the students were in the middle of their research, there has been a substantial damage but the extent of the damage is yet to be ascertained, said Dipak Mondal, head of the Department of Chemistry.

The fire broke out at nearly four o'clock in the morning on the third floor of the Derozio building and quickly spread from one laboratory to the next aided in the way by the presence of inflammable chemicals. “As the fire spread, it sounded like firecrackers were going off,” said Ajay Seal, a night guard of the premises describing the series of explosions that occurred.

Nearly a dozen fire tenders rushed to the site to douse the flames that were brought under control only four hours later.

Even hours after the fire had been stamped out, the air was heavy with acrid vapours from the residual chemicals. Distorted shapes of ovens, refrigerators and pipes could barely be distinguished in the debris of charred rubble and shattered glass beneath.

One wing on the third floor of the Derozio building was gutted and the fourth floor partly affected in the fire. The preliminary examinations conducted by forensic experts suggest that it could have emanated from a refrigerator in the research laboratory.

Promises action

The building had not abided by several provisions for an educational institution by the National Building Code of India, alleged a senior official of the Fire and Emergency Services Department.

Describing the incident as “shocking,” Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury, the State Minister for Higher Education, said he had spoken to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and been assured that the government would spare no efforts in restoring the premises. Kolkata Mayor and Trinamool Congress leader Shovan Chatterjee visited the site.

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