Hyderabad: For 17 people who died Sunday in a fire near the historic Charminar, the house is located in a tunnel-like alley with a narrow entrance and the stairs proved to be a death trap as it prevented them from escaping to safety.
Asaduddin Owaisi, CEO of Aimim and Hyderabad MP, told reporters that the family had lived there for 125 years, indicating that generations have lived there for more than a century.
The family is said to be running one of the oldest jewelry stores in the city, “Now there are only two families left. I want to express my condolences. I was informed by DG Fire Service that most of the deaths were caused by choking and smoke… Let the report come, it was very painful, it was very painful,” he said.
On Sunday, a suspected short circuit triggered a fire in a decades-old building (G+2) near the former residence of Gulzar, killing 17 people, including eight children.
Telangana National Disaster Response and Fire Director Y Nagi Reddy said it took two hours to get up to 11 fire tenders to put out the fire, adding that rescuers must wear oxygen masks to enter the burning house.
“The entrance to the narrow building is engulfed by fire and smoke, and the access to the first floor through the stairs is only one meter so residents cannot escape. The building has only one meter entrance, just like a tunnel,” Reddy said.
He added that the access to the first and second floors is just a staircase of one size.
Reddy said the crew was sleeping when the fire broke out.
He added that four people sleeping on the second floor were rescued with ladders.
Shortly after the fire broke out, Zahid was engaged in a bracelet business in the Gulzar housing area, and witnesses from the fire told reporters that when he passed by with friends, he was around 6.10 AM and a woman told them about the fire that broke out in the building and the family with children.
“When the door of the building was engulfed by the flames, we broke the shutter and the walls entered inside. When the fire was high, we went to the first floor. We found seven people in one room and six in the other. We couldn’t save them because of the fire. It’s great if we saved them,” he said. ”
He further said that he saw a dead woman embracing some lifeless children.
The morgue of Ottomania Hospital, where the bodies of different hospitals were sent for autopsy, looked serious when relatives shed tears in shock.
