India, Jan. 27 -- At 3 am on Monday, Moushumi Halder's phone rang. It was her husband, Pankaj, calling from the warehouse where he worked, 8 km away. It was a goodbye.

"He told me a fire had broken out and he wouldn't survive. He was pleading for help," Moushumi said, her voice breaking. "Then the line snapped. I called back and he said he only had five minutes left, and I would never see him again."

That was the last time she heard from him. By the time the family reached the Nazirabad area in South 24 Parganas, the entire warehouse was in flames.

The massive fire gutted two warehouses and an adjacent three-storey building, reducing the structures that had been warehouses for a fast-food chain and a decorator to twisted iron skeletons...