Kolkata fire: Screams of victims woke up locals

Locals said they were alerted to the fire by shouts of the victims sleeping inside the complex.

"At around 3.45 AM when I came out of my house after hearing those screams, I saw flames coming out of window panes of the building with people shouting from the windows," Ranjit Hazra, a resident of the area, said.

Shopkeepers and locals said that lack of adequate fire -fighting mechanism and exit routes were responsible for the 19 deaths in the fire.

Suresh Agarwal, whose grocery shop in the market was reduced to cinders, said, "The market complex does not have any proper fire -fighting mechanism. The entire market has only one proper entry and exit route."

Another shop owner Dipak said the entire staircase of the market complex was blocked by goods belonging to shops. State fire services minister Javed Khan said most of the people killed were either labourers working in the market complex or shop-owners who slept in their shops in the night.

Khan's views were endorsed by the governing body members of the market complex. "Those who have died are mostly labourers, but a few of them were also shop owners. There was only one proper exit.

There is an emergency exit but it has not been used for the last 10-15 years," Sushanta Ghosh, vice-chairman of the market, said.

"Actually most of

... contd.