Several employees of Dey’s Medical Stores (Manufacturing) Ltd expressed concerns about their future on Sunday as the pharma manufacturing unit will remain shut till it receives clearance from the fire department and police.

A blaze broke out on its premises on Bondel Road around 4pm on Saturday and took nearly three hours and 11 fire tenders to bring it under control.

The employees said the authorities have assured them there was nothing to worry about.

However, they remained “unsure” about what lay ahead.

One employee, who has been working at Dey’s Medical for past 21 years, said he was the sole breadwinner of his family and was deeply worried with the festive season approaching.

“I have five members in my family, all of whom are dependent on me. The festive season is around the corner. Though the authorities have assured us that there is nothing to worry about, the uncertainty remains — we still don’t know when the factory will resume operations,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Senior officials of the state fire and emergency services department said the forensic examination of the spot was scheduled on
Monday.

“Renovation work was going on in the factory. The origin of the fire may have been from there. But the exact cause and the seat of fire would be ascertained only after the forensic tests are conducted,” said an official.

The premises on 62 Bondel Road house the registered office and factory of Dey’s Medical Stores (Manufacturing) Ltd.

A 55-year-old employee said they always received fire safety training.

“We were given training about fire safety norms every time, but still such an incident happened. We need to be very careful whenever we start our work again,” he said.

Many of the employees said that the portion of the factory where the blaze broke was being renovated.

“That section was undergoing renovation,” said another employee.

Neeraj Saraf, 42, who lives on the second floor of a four-storeyed residential building — that shares a boundary wall with the Dey’s Medical factory — said the moment he saw thick black smoke and got strong chemical smell, he rushed to shut the windows.

“As we share the common boundary line, we had to close our windows. Anytime the fire could have reached our building,” said Saraf

The panic prompted Saraf to shift his elderly mother out of their home as soon as he saw the fire.

The police said the congested neighbourhood made their work difficult.

“Ideally, it is not safe to have a medicine factory that deals with chemicals in a residential neighbourhood. There was very little space for the fire tenders to work,” a fire fighting official said.

The factory had been a landmark building in the area for several decades.