The third storey of 33C Topsia Road, site of a blaze that claimed 11 lives 10 days ago, remains full of debris and smelling foul. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta One of the 33C Topsia Road blaze survivors. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Ten days after a blaze ravaged 33C Topsia Road and claimed 11 lives behind locked doors, police arrested Mohammed Asif, co-owner of Tenex Exports, from his Ripon Street residence on Friday morning.

Asif has been charged under the West Bengal Fire Services Act for not taking fire-safety measures in the (illegal) leather bag-making factory. “It is a non-bailable offence,” said S.N. Gupta, superintendent of police (South 24-Parganas). Khurshid Alam, owner of the building, and Mohammed Sagir Ahmed, elder brother of Asif, are absconding.

The site of the tragedy, a three-storeyed building, is now a ghost address. The main door of the building is now open, but no resident of the congested area has dared step into the foul-smelling darkness.

The collapsible gate to the third-floor remains under lock and key — just like it was early on November 22, with the sleeping workers inside. And a peep inside reveals a macabre sight — just like it was after the dead and the dying had been dragged out from the room.

A stench from the debris fills the wintry air. “Remains of bodies must still be there. More than a week has passed but no one has bothered to clean the room,” rues Ghulam Ali, who had led the rescue act.

Neither the enormity of the tragedy nor the fact that many more such tragedies are waiting to happen in the hundreds of sweatshops in the thousands of illegal buildings in the area has drawn any political leader to the tragedy spot — apart from a token guest appearance by Ram Vilas Paswan.

“It is the job of the civic body to clear the debris. Police have nothing to do with it,” claimed superintendent Gupta.

One of the 33C Topsia Road blaze survivors. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who had visited the site last Wednesday, claimed the room had probably not been cleared as “investigation” was on. “I will ensure that the debris is cleared on Saturday,” he added.

Local Trinamul Congress councillor and MLA Javed Ahmed Khan was, of course, too busy trying to ensure the bandh was a success to bother about the life-and-death matters of workers in the area.

If the third-floor room bears the ravages of the blaze, so does the family that was rescued by Ghulam Ali and friends from the two-room home on the terrace.

“I woke up hearing cries of bachao, bachao. For a moment I thought robbers had entered the building. My husband and I stepped out, only to see flames leaping out of the third floor and smoke engulfing the entire building,” recounted 45-year-old Saeeda Khatoon.

Around 20 minutes later, some local youths managed to enter the building but could not reach the terrace as the key to the third-floor collapsible gate was lost.

“It was terrible. We had to finally throw our little children from one terrace to another and then clamber across with the help of a ladder,” said Rukhsana Begum, mother of Fatma, 6, Fardeen, 4, and Farhan 3. “But the cries are still echoing in our ears,” she said.