KOLKATA: A forensic team, which carried out a detailed examination of Bagri Market on Thursday, termed sections of the building “precarious” and their condition “a cause for concern” before recommending that KMC structural engineers pay special attention to sections of the first and second floors facing Canning Street.Parts of the market structure, particularly the fourth and fifth floors, had suffered extensive structural damage because of the intense heat and could be beyond repair , a senior KMC official said. “Parts of the fourth and fifth floors are beyond the scope of repair. The condition of the third floor, too, is bad,” he added.“Propane and isobutane, along with jelly from melting lozenges, released a sizeable quantity of combustible hydrocarbon that fuelled the fire. The flame caused by these gases was hot enough to cause damage to concrete and steel,” another official said. Steel’s strength reduces between 200°C and 250°C; concrete’s bonding is greatly affected at temperatures higher than 450°C- 500°C.But KMC officials said a final decision on whether the building needed to be demolished would follow the use of X-ray machines to determine its structural stability. “A scan of the building will give us the final answer to the question: repair-and-renovation or demolition-and-reconstruction,” a KMC building department official said.Bagri Market traders, who made their opposition to demolition clear a couple of days ago, followed the forensic team around on Thursday. “We want to make our presence felt and ensure that they are aware that their recommendations will affect not just a brick-and-mortar structure but many lives,” one of them said, expressing apprehensions over “what might follow a demolition decision”.Owners have already written their names, GST and trade licence numbers on the sootcovered shutters and walls of shops and clicked photographs as proof of ownership and evidence that the shop exists.The unspoken fear that is lurking in everyone’s mind is what happens if a section of the market containing their shop collapses on its own or if the KMC decides to raze the portions that are labelled insecure.A TOI survey of the smouldering building on Wednesday afternoon revealed sagged beams, cracked columns with steel bars jutting out, collapsed staircases and floors too weak to tread on. The eight-member forensic team that spent two-and-a-half hours inside the building on Thursday used several gadgets to diagnose its condition before concluding that some parts were precarious and needed immediate attention. The devices included meters to measure vibration levels and strength of the building and amount of gaseous fumes still trapped inside.The men, clad in white jackets, entered the soot-covered building through gate G on Amartolla Lane and headed towards Block-C. A stop between Block-C and Block-D on the first floor and use of the vibration meter revealed readings that breached the safe level and “were a cause for concern”, officials said. The team also suggested to cops that movement of people through the section be limited.The team then proceeded towards Block-A, stopping by pillars to collect samples of concrete, and took concrete samples from the floor before climbing to the second floor and heading straight for the worst-affected shop there. Scientists photographed the interiors extensively and inserted a Go-Pro camera into cracks and wedges to photograph the condition inside. They also collected samples of concrete that had spalled off pillars, beams and ceiling. “There are signs of devastation caused by the fire and the damage it wrecked on this section of the building,” an official said.Fire-fighting operations were called off at 1.05 p.m. on Wednesday and much of the evening and the night that followed was used to pour water on the building to cool it but the temperature still sizzled at 55°C-60°C when the forensic team did the rounds on Thursday. Even the count on the combustible gas detector recorded “alarming levels”, indicating that the building still had a high concentration of gases, enough for a spark to stoke a fresh fire.

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