Readymade Centre in Sodepur, site of 13 suffocation deaths after a fire on Friday. A Telegraph picture

The fire at Sodepur’s Readymade Centre was triggered by expansion work, the proposal for which was shot down by the local civic authorities four years ago.

“We had turned down their application because they wanted to drill in pillars in a pond to extend the first floor,” said Bijan Bhowmik, the councillor of ward 14 of Panihati Municipality. “But the owners later produced a no-objection certificate from the fisheries department and we had to give them the go-ahead in 2006.”

Welding sparks from iron beams, set up for the expansion, had set a tarpaulin aflame at the garments store on Friday. Thirteen lives were lost in the mishap.

Fisheries department officials could not be reached for comments on what had prompted them to issue the no-objection certificate even after the municipality had turned down the expansion plea. “No one cares for rules in the suburbs,” said an official of Panihati Municipality.

The officials of the state fire and emergency services who visited Readymade Centre on Saturday said the owners had not followed the norms laid down by their department. “There was no second exit and the shop lacked even the basic fire-fighting gadgets. The owners did not follow a single norm,” said fire services director Gopal Bhattacharya.

Narayan Saha and son Sankar (co-owners of the store), who had suffered gas poisoning after the fire, were in the ICCU of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on Sunday.

A CID team, headed by additional director-general Bhupinder Singh, inspected the spot on Sunday and spoke to local residents and civic officials.