Smoke emanates from the Videocon warehouse in Sector V on Saturday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta, April 19: Today’s blaze in the Videocon warehouse has brought home the need for collective firefighting in Sector V, which saw two fires in three days.

Each building may be self-sufficient in terms of fire safeguards, but authorities feel there is a need to look at the sector as a whole before another blaze like the one today erupts.

On April 17, a fire broke out on the 18th floor of Infinity Benchmark, a building under construction in the IT hub.

“We are currently in talks with the fire department to expand the fire station beside the SDF building in Sector V,” said S.A. Ahmed, chairman of the Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority, which looks after the IT hub’s civic affairs.

There are only three fire tenders at the Bidhannagar fire station that serves the whole of Salt Lake. “None of these has high ladders, which is a problem with many tall buildings coming up in the IT sector,” a fire department official said.

The fire services department’s safety norms are mandatory for all buildings. There are no separate rules for IT buildings.

“Sector V and Rajarhat are growing at a rapid pace with a lot of new companies setting up offices. Computers are an integral part of the operations and are highly combustible along with the electrical infrastructure,” said an IT company chief who was unwilling to be named.

“We need to sit down and discuss collective measures. Since we are self-sufficient in terms of fire-safety measures, we often tend to overlook collective ones, especially where professional help is concerned.”

Nasscom and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry are willing to help.

“We are about to conduct a pilot programme on road safety in Sector V and would be glad to consider similar programmes for fire safety,” said Suparno Maitra, head of Nasscom’s Calcutta office.

S. Radhakrishnan, the president of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said there should be some initiative forthcoming on fire safety, considering that the two fires had happened in quick succession.