Most of the residents evacuated from building where fire broke out: Minister (LEAD)

Kolkata, Oct 17 (IANS) A fire broke out in a multi-storey residential building in Kolkata's Ganesh Chandra Avenue on Friday night, fire services department sources said.West Bengal fire services minister Sujit Bose who reached the spot said that maximum number residents were evacuated from the building and the fire brigade officials were carrying out thorough search operations in the building to find out if anyone was trapped in any flat of the apartment."We are carrying out intense rescue operations. We cannot reveal any figure of total people still trapped inside the building. We are trying to find out if anyone is still trapped in the upper floors of the building," Bose said.Police sources, however, said that at least two people were feared dead in the accident so far.According to media reports, an elderly lady was trapped inside a washroom and died while a young boy jumped off from the building's roof in fright as the blaze engulfed the upper floors.At least 10 fire tenders and a hydraulic ladder were pressed into service to rescue the residents trapped inside the building.Some people are still trapped inside the building and a rescue operation is currently going on, reports said.
--IANS sbn/rt