A fire suspected to have started at a women’s hostel on the campus of a missionary school in central Calcutta gutted at least two rooms and forced an emergency evacuation of hundreds of students who were attending classes in another wing of the same building on Friday morning.
Police said there were no reports of anyone having been trapped or injured in the fire at Lee Memorial Mission.
But several women, many of whom have risen over hardships to pursue education
or a vocation, lost all their books and belongings. And hundreds of children spent a horrifying time in an open field looking up at the leaping flames.
Lee Memorial Mission is located on Raja Subodh Mullick Square Road, a stone’s throw from Lenin Sarani on one side and Creek Row on the other. Its campus has several facilities — Lee Memorial Girls’ High School, a primary school, a school up to Class VIII, a girls’ hostel and a hostel for women.
The fire started in the women’s hostel. Students
from outside Bengal who are pursuing higher studies stay on the second and third
floors of the four-storeyed building. Some women staff members also stay in the women’s accommodation, officials said.
Police sources said there are more than 40 rooms in the building, of which around 20 were occupied by outstation students who are pursuing higher studies.
A Class X student, who was in her classroom on the first floor, said: “We were having our geography class when a senior teacher came running to our class and said there was a fire on the third floor. We were asked to immediately vacate the building.”
The fire, the student said, was reported from one of the rooms just above the classroom where she was sitting.
The children were queu-ed out of the classrooms
and shifted to a ground
near the school.
By the time the fire could be extinguished, the flames had engulfed two rooms on the second floor. The belongings of the students who lived there were gutted.
Several young women who are pursuing their postgraduation and are residents of the women’s accom-
modation were seen running to the charred rooms around an hour after the flames
had been doused, hoping to recover some of their belongings.
At least two of them came out teary-eyed with half-burned bags in their hands.
Reverend Kamalaksha Sardar, district superintendent, Methodist Church, Calcutta district, and vice-
chairman of Lee Memorial Mission, said: “The smoke
was noticed around 12.10pm and the fire brigade was called. All the children, who were
in a separate wing of the building, were shifted out of the school to ensure their safety. No one was injured or trapped.”
The police suspect a short circuit on the second floor triggered the fire. “The exact cause of the fire can be ascertained only after a forensic examination,” said an officer at Muchipara police station.
Three fire tenders were sent to the spot to douse the flames. The fire was put out by 1.35pm.
A senior official in the fire department said the affected rooms had been sealed as samples would be collected for forensic examinations.
An official in the school said luckily there were no students in the rooms affected by the fire.
“The room that first caught fire had accommodation for four students. There was no one in the room. The fire gutted the first room and spread through the adjoining room when a teacher who was taking class on the same floor raised the alarm,” said a staff member.
Another staff member, who was in another section of the building, said he had tried to go closer to the affected rooms when the fire was blazing, but failed because of the “tremendous heat”.
Officers at Muchipara police station said on Friday evening that no complaint
had been lodged regarding the fire.
