Plastic factory fire: Five charred bodies found on second floor

KOLKAT: More than 72-hours after a massive fire gutted a three-storey chair factory at New Barrackpore’s Jugberia on Monday afternoon, the charred remains of the five persons trapped inside were recovered from the second floor. The burnt bodies were identified by the victims’ families and have been sent for post-mortem.

Ananda Roy, DCP, Zone II, Barrackpore Commissionerate told TOI, “All five bodies were found severely burnt. They were lying under the charred iron rakes. Preliminarily, we suspect that after they failed to get out of the burning building, they had tried to hide under the iron rakes. Though their families identified them by their wristwatches and other accessories, it may require DNA analysis to ascertain the proper identification.”


Among those missing after the fire was an electrical diploma engineer Sanjib Paria, 26, a resident of Beadon Street in Kolkata. The others were Subodh Roy, 38, of Sodepur, Nityananda Roy, 42, of Ghola, Paltu Duari, 34, from Panihati and Munna Prasad Rai, 35, of Agarpara. The remains were found in the welding division during a marathon search operation that started on Monday evening after the blaze was brought under control.

According to police sources, the positions the bodies were in revealed that they did their best to escape but could not break the grilles on windows. Locals, however, had said they spotted people at the windows on the second floor after the fire started, but they could not be rescued as the hydraulic ladder arrived late. Fire department officials said the hydraulic ladders could not initially be used due to the high flames and the dense smoke.

Sanjib’s father, 50-yearold Nimai, had been waiting for his son’s body at the entrance of the charred factory. “I would reach the factory gate at 8am every day and wait till evening to see if my son’s body was found. I didn’t know about recovery of the bodies on Thursday evening. I rushed to the spot after seeing the news on a TV channel on Friday morning,” he said.