One person suffered serious burn injuries and around 30 shops were reduced to ashes in a major fire at Kestopur in the northern part of the city early on Sunday, fire brigade sources said.
Fifteen fire tenders fought the flames for three hours to put off the blaze which broke out at around 2 am, the sources said.
The local resident, who suffered burn injuries while trying to evacuate and fight the flames, was in serious condition, the sources said.
The fire first started at a roadside furniture shop at Satarupa Pally in Kestopur and took no time in spreading to nearby shops all housed in shanties, the sources said.
Fire Services minister Sujit Bose rushed to the spot, on hearing about the incident and supervised firefighting operations.
Bose denied allegations by a section of locals that the fire brigade was late in arriving and said the prompt action by fire fighters prevented a bigger tragedy.
Local MLA Aditi Munsi also went to the spot and talked to the affected families.
Fire brigade sources said the flames were believed to have been ignited by an LPG cylinder blast in the shop and due to presence of inflammable materials spread to other shops.