KMC team on squatter check visits Ezra St agiary that survived blaze

Kolkata: KMC officials inspected the nearly two-century-old fire temple on Ezra Street that had survived an inferno in Nov 2025, spending over an hour at the premises at 26 Ezra Street, where over 90 stores selling fancy lights are situated.The KMC secretary, along with officials from the heritage, building and licence department, carried out the inspection. Officers from the Hare Street Police Station were also present during the inspection.Based on Thursday's survey, the KMC will prepare a report to submit to the Calcutta High Court, where a case is underway on the encroachment of the heritage building, which is in a dilapidated condition and crying for repairs.The agiary, or fire temple, listed as Rustomjee Cowasjee Church in KMC records and established in 1839 by Parsi businessman, shipbuilder and philanthropist Rustomjee Cowasjee Banajee, was damaged in the early morning fire on Nov 15. However, a later KMC assessment found the structure sturdy and capable of surviving for two more centuries after repairs.The fire and heat caused the lime mortar building's exterior wall plaster to flake off in places, but the thick walls, giant Tuscan pillars, Doric pilasters and the roof survived. A TOI visit to the agiary a fortnight after the fire revealed the temple's sanctum sanctorum was intact along with the Afargan, or the urn where the fire used to be placed. The Italian tiles on the walls were also in good condition.Although a wooden beam had collapsed after a portion of it was seared by the fire, it did not cause the roof to cave in, as steel joists installed prior to the fire to strengthen the roof kept it from collapsing.The market in the Parsi temple complex prior to the fire was devastated, and traders claimed they lost goods worth nearly Rs 100 crore in the fire. Most of the traders are back in business in the compound.Md Islam (88), who used to look after the temple, maintained that Cursetjee Manackjee Rustomjee, the last trustee of the temple, had allowed the shopkeepers to do business there and furnished trade licence, electricity bill and rent bill deposited with the Rent Control, but the Official Trustee of West Bengal had refused to acknowledge them and claimed the traders were illegal.Following the change of guard in the state, the traders are apprehensive the ‘encroacher tag' by the Official Trustee could be used to drive them out of the premises. Most of the traders said they were willing to relocate if the govt arranged for a new place for them to conduct their business.