Firemen battle the blaze at Mehta Building, on congested Canning Street, on Tuesday morning. The fire broke out in a first-floor godown storing chemicals for making homoeopathy drugs. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

A fire broke out on the first floor of Mehta Building on Tuesday morning, gutting a godown stacked with chemicals for making homoeopathy drugs.

Seventeen fire tenders brought the blaze under control in three hours. The fire did not spread to any other shop in the five-storeyed market on Canning Street, nor was there any injury or casualty.

“SB and Company, the godown where the blaze originated, had no fire-fighting arrangements,” said an officer.

“Following a complaint by the fire department, a case of negligence has been started against the owners of SB and Company, Ranjit and Partha Sen,” said an officer of Hare Street police station.

The brothers, who also own a medicine shop on the ground floor of the market, have been asked to come to the police station on Wednesday.

The fire broke out around 10.15am when three employees of SB and Company were waiting for the owners to open the shop. The employees saw thick, white smoke billowing from the godown, which is on the southern side of B block.

Some residents on the fourth and fifth floors rushed to the spot and broke open the entrance, before informing the police and fire brigade.

“A few hand-held fire extinguishers that were around were pressed into service, preventing the blaze from spreading to an adjoining plastic shop,” said Mohammad Abbas, a trader.

Local residents and the police joined hands to rescue the residents from the affected block. The firemen arrived around 10.30am while the rescue operation was on.

“Some of the traders asked us not to spray water, fearing that the chemicals in the godown would react and explode. They relented after we explained to them that it would not happen,” said a fire officer.

The building, spread across eight cottahs, houses over 1,000 legal and illegal shops selling electronic goods, medicines, plastic items, paper plates, chemicals and toys. The owner — Vishnu Properties — collects rents ranging from Rs 400 to Rs 2,000, depending on the space.

Irfan Ghani, the president of Mehta Building’s Cloth and General Merchants’ Association, said a fire recently broke out atop the second-floor electric box in the C Block.