Kolkata: In another incident of fire in the city's commercial hub, a four-storied building of Dunlop India Limited housing its district sales office and godown at Mirza Ghalib Street was completely destroyed on March 13 morning.

None was injured in the incident, as the building was closed for more than two years, fire brigade sources said.

Thirty fire tenders were used to douse the fire, the sources said, adding smoke was still billowing out from the smouldering heap.

The fire was reported at around 5.20 am (IST) and even as officials were chalking out strategies to enter the building with the main entrance locked from inside, the main joists gave away under the severe intensity of the heat. This led to the collapse of the building's slabs at around 6.15 am (IST), fire brigade officer D P Biswas, supervising the dousing work said.

"The fire was not so much to lead to the collapse," he said, adding, forensic experts were called to ascertain the cause of the fire. A first information report (FIR) was also lodged with Park Street police station.

Mayor-in-council, building, Swapan Samaddar rushed to the spot and later told reporters that he personally felt it was a case of sabotage though the cause could be ascertained by forensic experts.

Dunlop officials said they came to know about the fire at about 6 am (IST).

"We don't know anything apart from that. Police will investigate and say how the fire was caused. There was practically nothing in the building, as the godown was empty except for some old papers," they said.

Dunlop, which had been referred to BIFR, had shut down its operations in West Bengal and was in the process of selling its properties in Kolkata to arrange for funds to resume operations.

PTI