Renovation work in progress on the fire-ravaged 15th floor of Chatterjee International. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta, Sept. 6: Chatterjee International reopened till the 13th floor this morning, four days after a fire broke out on the 15th floor.

Employees whose offices reopened today arrived with computers and files they had taken away after the fire to work from other locations.

“We had taken away some of our files and a few computers to our factory in Howrah. Today, we brought them back,” said an employee of Kejriwal Castings.

A man was seen carrying a pedestal fan up the stairs to an office that had removed the fans, apprehending that it would take many days for the 23-storey building to reopen.

An office-bearer of the Chatterjee International Center Society said the fire department was expected to give permission to reopen the other floors, barring the 14th, 15th and 16th, next week. The department permitted the reopening of the 13 floors on the basis of a written undertaking by the occupants to comply with all fire-safety norms in four months.

The blaze on Tuesday left several offices on the 15th and 16th floors gutted. The flooring and the roof of the 15th floor have developed cracks, making the floor structurally weak along with the floors immediately above and below it.

Employees of a firm that has an office on the 17th floor took away fish from its aquarium in jars. Gautam Pal, an employee of an edible oil manufacturer, said the fish would be kept in another office of the firm in an adjacent building.

Two of the five lifts have been made operational, triggering long queues in front of them. “The other three lifts and their wires are still wet because of the water used to douse the fire. It will take a few more days to restart them,” a Chatterjee International Center Society official said.

Renovation work has begun on the 15th floor.

“We expect to get the fire services department’s clearance to reopen the other floors, barring the three affected ones, by next week,” a society official said.

The society has started installing more fire extinguishers on all the floors. “We are also finding out if some offices do not have fire extinguishers,” said Mahesh Prahladka, the secretary of the society.