{"id":160581,"date":"2025-12-26T17:24:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/?p=160581"},"modified":"2025-12-26T17:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T13:54:53","slug":"fire-strikes-historic-186-years-old-zoroastrian-fire-temple-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/?p=160581","title":{"rendered":"Fire Strikes Historic 186 years old Zoroastrian Fire Temple in India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early on Saturday, 24 Aban 1404 (15 November 2025), a large fire erupted in a warehouse on Ezra Street in central Kolkata, causing extensive damage to the Zoroastrian fire temple located there, the city\u2019s earliest Zoroastrian fire temple, founded 186 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The blaze also damaged more than one hundred nearby shops selling electrical goods and other merchandise. Fire crews worked for over six hours to bring the flames under control after the fire began at 5:30 a.m., with the first alert coming from the Kolkata Police headquarters in Burrabazar.<\/p>\n

Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma noted that following the destructive Bagri Market fire in September 2018, both the police and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had issued preventive guidelines to business owners in the Ezra Street area and had outlined emergency response measures.<\/p>\n

He added that authorities will determine the cause of the fire and investigate claims that parked vehicles may have obstructed firefighters. Verma explained that police, fire services, and municipal officials conduct routine inspections throughout the year to ensure the guidelines are followed, and that legal action will be taken if any violations are confirmed.<\/p>\n

Santosh Patak, a member of the Congress council in the area, expressed frustration that authorities had ignored his repeated warnings. He stated, \u201cI have written around 20 letters to the officials.\u201d In response, Mayor Firhad Hakim explained that the municipal authorities often remain unaware of illegal constructions until issues arise. \u201cPeople only raise complaints when problems occur. I meet with Patak twice a month at the municipal office, but he has never informed me about any issues with this building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rustamji Kavusji Fire Temple, built in 1839 by the merchant Rustamji Kavusji, stands as a historic landmark in the city. It was inaugurated on September 16, 1839, in the presence of Durkanath Tagore and is located at 26 Ezra Street, later renamed Zoroastrian\u2019 Church Street. The building is recognized as a Grade I heritage structure. Unfortunately, due to illegal encroachments and severe deterioration, it is currently inaccessible to visitors and urgently requires restoration.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Mayor Hakim instructed municipal authorities to conduct a thorough inspection of the fire temple and prepare a report on the encroachments within its premises.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early on Saturday, 24 Aban 1404 (15 November 2025), a large fire erupted in a warehouse on Ezra Street in central Kolkata, causing extensive damage to the Zoroastrian fire temple located there, the city\u2019s earliest Zoroastrian fire temple, founded 186 years ago. The blaze also damaged more than one hundred nearby shops selling electrical goods […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":160582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[448,856],"class_list":["post-160581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zoroastrians","tag-fire-temple","tag-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/160582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.amordadnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}