A man (centre) arrived in Burrabazar carrying “fire extinguishing balls”, a “new product” that he wanted to hurl at the blazing building. “If I throw a ball, it will explode and cut the oxygen supply, putting out the blaze instantly,” he claimed. But the firemen were not impressed and politely asked him to leave. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Calcutta, Jan. 12: The fire-fighters had just one ladder. A power cut shut the nearest pumping station, and the fire department delayed bringing its own pumps.

The hydrants were dry and the buildings in the narrow lanes were too close, denying the firemen enough elbow room.

All these factors combined to keep the 1am fire at the Kashiram market building burning till tonight.

“The biggest problem was water supply though 42 of the city’s 50 fire tenders had been sent to the spot,” said D.P. Biswas, fire services director.

“A power cut hit the Mullickghat pumping station at 2am, hobbling early efforts. We had to get water from the Wellington Square and Auckland Square reservoirs, which are farther away.”

Power returned around 4.10am but the pumping station “was ready only at 4.30am”, Biswas said. “This loss of time was crucial.”

But residents blamed the fire department, saying it brought its own pumps — to use water from Laldighi, the nearest reservoir — eight hours after the fire started.

“Had they come well equipped, the blaze could have been contained. I had rushed to my shop from my home in Kalakar Street around 1.15am and saw the fire engines struggling,” said Rajesh Karnwat, owner of Bhawrelal Karnwat, a tarpaulin shop in Jamunalal Bajaj Street.

“With the water tanks emptying in minutes and no back-up, it was sheer madness.”

The firefighters said the hydrant system at Kashiram was defunct, possibly because of poor maintenance.

The army, airports authority and the air force sent five jet-fitted extinguishers by 2.30pm but they emptied every 15 minutes and had to go back to Laldighi or Mullickghat to fill up, which took another 15 minutes.

Besides, the firemen brought just one Bronto Skylift — a 54-metre-tall ladder, or aerial platform, bought a decade ago at Rs 3 crore.

“We have two more, one in Howrah and the other in Free School Street, but they are defunct,” a fire official said.

A fireman said a second ladder would have been a great help. “As soon as we douse the flame on one side of the building, it leaps up from another side. This would not have happened if we could attack it from both sides.”

But the two defunct ladders are just 32 metres tall, so even if they had been working, they would have been too short.

The narrow lanes — with the buildings built too close to one another — prevented the fire engines from getting close enough, firefighters said.