A trader breaks down after seeing his charred shop. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta, Jan. 12: The fire could not have come at a worse time for Burrabazar, with the shops stocked up for the wedding season ahead and the shelves still full of winter wear.

“The extent of loss has been so great that it is difficult to put a figure to it. It would be around Rs 200 crore but this figure would surely go up because a large number of items in different shops would also be damaged by the water (used in firefighting),” said B.D. Mimani, the secretary of the Chamber of Textile Trade and Industry.

In Tirpalpatti, the wholesale tarpaulin market along Jamunalal Bajaj Street where the fire started at 1am, some shops had additionally stocked blankets and leather garments for the winter. The blaze raced through the inflammable material.

“A shop in Noormal Lohia Lane (off JL Bajaj Street) that caught fire after the flames leaped across was stocked with blankets. Fortunately, we managed to prevent the fire from spreading,” said Shiv Shankar Karnani, a trader. “But we couldn’t save the shops in Jamunalal Bajaj Street.”

On an average, a small trader in the area does business of around Rs 5 lakh annually, locals said. “Today’s fire has gutted almost 2,500 shops (big and small). So you can well imagine the loss,” said Rajesh Karnwat, a tarpaulin shop owner.

Round the corner, traders with offices in the Kashiram block of the Nandaram market were busy trying to salvage whatever they could, even files.

“We have just managed to retrieve some items, including a computer, from our office. We can’t make out how much has been lost but it would be anything between Rs 30 and 32 lakh,” said C.R. Maheshwari, who owns Vikas Enterprise, a garment shop on the fourth floor of the Nandaram market.

Other wholesale dealers, selling anything from saris and paint to toothbrushes, rubber and plastic, struggled to take a count of their losses.

“It is not just about shops and shop owners. The fire would also affect thousands who work in the gaddis and shops dotting the area. In the chain reaction, thousands of families would be hit,” said Anil Mehnot, who runs a sari agency in the Nandaram market. “It would take months to actually realise the extent of loss.”