An employee of the affected leather unit smashes the windowpanes to help fight the fire at the Kasba Industrial Estate on Sunday morning. Picture by Amit Datta

Calcutta, Feb. 17: A fire broke out in the Kasba Industrial Estate on Sunday morning, gutting a leather unit and destroying material worth Rs 5 crore.

The blaze exposed the lack of safety measures at the address promoted by the state small industries development corporation and touted by the government as a success story.

Twenty-six tenders took over four hours to douse the blaze that broke out around 8am in XL Enterprises Ltd, in Phase I of the 10-acre estate off the Bypass housing 300 units.

Around 12.30pm, after fire services director Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya said the situation was under control, black smoke was still billowing from the three-storeyed building. “The smoke will continue to rise for some time. This is normal after a big fire,” said Bhattacharya.

Susobhan Dasgupta, a director of the unit producing leather bags, put the loss at an estimated Rs 5 crore. “We are ruined. The loss could have been less had the firemen been more prompt in arriving and dousing the flames.”

Dasgupta alleged that Gariahat fire station, 5 km from the spot, was alerted immediately after the blaze was spotted, but it took an hour for the first tender to arrive.

Fire minister Pratim Chatterjee, who got a taste of the local people’s wrath when he arrived at the spot, defended his department. “Firefighters are not magicians. They are always prompt, but certain factors come in their way of reaching the spot on time.”

Chatterjee claimed that the Kasba estate did not have the “basic fire-fighting” arrangements. “I have been repeatedly telling the government to do something about the fire-fighting preparedness of such industrial estates, but in vain.”

An official of EMAAR Fashions, in Phase 1 of the estate, fought fire with fire.

“The minister blamed the unit owners for the lack of safety measures. But what were the small industries development corporation officials, who visit the estate every month, doing? Why did they not complain against us?”

The corporation chose to play down the past.“There is a water reservoir in Kasba estate and we are in the process of installing modern safety measures in all our industrial estates. But first we have to find out what caused Sunday’s fire,” said Manoj Pant, the managing director of the small industries development corporation.

The delay in curbing the blaze did not prove fatal mainly because it was a Sunday, said residents.

An official supervising the dousing operation said the building — each floor spread across 2,400 sq ft — has a “very narrow” staircase. “Our men had to break open the rolling shutters to enter the building.”

The cause of the fire could not be ascertained till late on Sunday.