Kolkata nerve centre has fire escape

The city narrowly escaped a disaster of gigantic proportions on Tuesday evening when a concerted effort by firemen and local residents stopped a petrol pump blaze from reaching the reservoir. An explosion could have caused enormous casualties in the Camac Street area.

Residents of nearby apartments rushed out of their homes with portable fire extinguishers to help firemen who were trying to hose down the flames. Hundreds vacated their houses in terror as the fire leapt 20 feet in the air and kept advancing towards an underground reservoir of thousands of litres of fuel. The shopping destinations of Vardaan Market and 22 Camac Street are within a stone’s throw of the petrol pump, which is surrounded by residential and office buildings.