Two tannery hands were choked to death and six left unconscious in a fire that razed a unit on South Tangra Road, in the Tiljala police station area, on Sunday morning. Sarada Ghosh, 40, and Shamsher Khan, 20, alias Munna, trapped in the tannery with six colleagues, were exposed to toxic fumes for almost two hours before help arrived. Later in the evening, Moula Baksh, 27, died in hospital.

“There were 10 men in the tannery when the fire started at 8.45 am. Some were spraying colour on leather sheets while the rest were bathing,” said Subir Chatterjee, officer-in-charge of Tiljala police station.

Local residents said the fire spread fast, denying those trapped inside a chance to escape. The alarm was raised after smoke was noticed, and only two of the 10 managed to come out.

Firemen in six fire-tenders reached the spot within 15 minutes and fought for an hour and a half to douse the blaze and enter the unit. The victims were found lying unconscious.

Tannery owner S. Arakia Marie and husband Nelis Francis have been arrested, along with a chemical expert working for them. “Marie is a Belgian and we have seized her passport,” said a local thana official.

Firemen complained of difficulty in dousing the flames because the spot is congested, with very little space to manoeuvre, and the smoke that reduced visibility to zero. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet, but it is possibly a short circuit, they added.