Durgapur, March 26: Residents of Nimcha in Ranigunj fled their homes early this morning after about 100sqft of earth caved in on the fringes of the village and flames leapt out.

Around 4am today, when the village about 230km from Calcutta was fast asleep, the patch of land subsided with a rumbling sound. Villagers woke up and saw thick smoke billowing out of a gaping hole only about 50 feet from the nearest house.

Eastern Coalfields Ltd officials rushed to the spot, cordoned off the area and started filling up the hole with sand and mud.

A cloud of smoke hung over the area through the day, making breathing difficult. ECL officials said an underground fire was eating up the coal reserves and the surface was becoming subsidence-prone. This is the third cave-in at Nimcha since January.

Villagers accused the ECL of lifting coal without taking precautions against subsidence and underground fire. Sitaram Mukherjee, 25, said: “We live in perpetual fear.”

Seven families have been evacuated from the village in the past few months. ECL general manager K.P. Singh said: “After an ongoing survey is completed, we’ll dig a canal between the fire-prone area and the village so that the fire does not spread.”