Firemen at the Haldiram outlet. Picture by Aranya Sen

A fire broke out in the second-floor storeroom of the Haldiram Bhujiawala outlet at the Exide crossing on Thursday morning.

The restaurant on the ground floor, which was packed to capacity, was immediately evacuated and remained closed for the day. No one was injured

This was the second blaze in the outlet. In 2007, one of the generators had caught fire.

The 400-sq-ft storeroom which went up in flames on Thursday was packed with inflammable material, including polythene bags, cartons and boxes.

Fifteen fire tenders rushed to the spot and took more than three hours to put out the fire. The parked fire engines caused snarls on AJC Bose Road and JL Nehru Road.

Vehicles were diverted to Bishop Lefroy Road and Elgin Road. It took an hour for the traffic flow to become normal.

“The fire might have been caused by a short-circuit or a careless smoker in the storeroom. We are waiting for the forensic report,” said a fire department officer.

Senior officers said fire safety arrangements in the building were inadequate.

“The outlet has a few extinguishers and a hydrant but these are not enough where cooking is done for most of the day. Barring the restaurant, the entire building is used for cooking and storing LPG cylinders,” said Gopal Bhattacharjee, the director-general of West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services.

This is not the first time that the outlet’s fire safety arrangements have come under the scanner. In June 2005, the fire department had shut down the outlet for almost a month after an FIR was lodged against its owners.

A joint raid by fire officers and police had revealed that 45 gas and diesel ovens were running illegally. More than 150 LPG cylinders were stored inside the building.

“The building was a fire trap. Narrow stairs and corridors were stacked with tins of ghee and oil,” said Bhattacharjee.