Fire officer in charge of zone suspended

Kolkata: The fire and emergency services dept has suspended Pragati Maidan fire station officer after a fire at a Topsia manufacturing unit claimed two lives on Tuesday. Gautam Das, station officer and in-charge, faces suspension for negligence of duty. DG (state fire and emergency services) Anuj Sharma issued a notification on Wednesday. The notification points to negligence in monitoring, inspection and enforcement of fire safety laws. A departmental investigation too has been initiated with instructions that it must finish within one month. Das will report at fire dept headquarters during suspension and will require permission to leave base."Fire department enforces safety audits. Our job is to complete inspections and give reports against illegal buildings. The probe will thus review the fire station logs and visits carried out at the affected address to establish the role of Das. We have asked all units to provide a status report on inspections at the headquarters on an urgent basis," said an officer.Following a signed complaint by witness Sk Shahid, the Tiljala Police registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to commit culpable homicide against the factory management. Cops said their probe will be independent of that of the fire dept."The manufacturing unit was running under the names of Delta Leather Corporation and Liu Ching Yuan Tannery, and was packed with highly combustible raw materials used for manufacturing leather purses and wallets without any clearances from any dept," a cop report said.