17 Who Died in Hyderabad Fire Were Trapped by Shuttered Building in Narrow Lane

Hyderabad: A major fire in a commercial space-cum-residential building in a narrow bylane near the main road in Gulzar Houz, a Nizam-era fountain facing the Charminar in Hyderabad on Sunday (May 18), claimed the lives of 17 persons, including eight children in the age group of one-and-a-half to seven years.

Five men and four women, all belonging to one family, also died.

The children were on a visit to their grandparents Prahlad Modi (73) and his wife Munni Bai (70). The couple, their two daughters, a son and their children beside Prahlad Modi's brother Rajendra Kumar Modi and his wife died in the accident.

The family ran a pearl business with three outlets in the building's ground floor, which was closed by a shutter after business hours.

A narrow staircase beside the shops led to the first and second floors, where the family resided in a verandah and eight rooms.

Firefighters at the site of the blaze. Photo: PTI.

A short circuit in the panels of electric meters in the ground at floor around 5:50 am on Sunday created sparks, which subsequently caused a fire that engulfed the entire premises within minutes.

There were also air-conditioners in six of the eight rooms, whose compressors were said to have exploded and intensified the fire.

The family had returned from a domestic function in Attapur at around 2 am and was fast asleep when the tragedy struck.

Two women who were jolted out of their sleep by a burning smell and tried to wake the others up in a bid to escape, but it was too dark either to trace them or look for an exit as the premises was engulfed by thick smoke.

All the doors and windows were shut, adding to the lack of an outlet for the smoke.

In all, 21 persons were trapped on the first floor. Four of them managed to escape to the terrace on the second floor of the building through a staircase in the verandah. All the remaining residents fell unconscious and died of asphyxiation, according to firefighters who joined the rescue operation following emergency calls from neighbours.

They had no escape route as the staircase to the upper floors was in a tunnel-like alley of one metre’s width that had become engulfed in smoke.

The staircase also had a shutter that was locked from the inside and had to be broken open by rescuers.

The director general of Telangana’s Disaster Response and Fire Service, Y. Nagi Reddy, said all 17 persons died of inhaling smoke and that they did not suffer burn injuries.

Firefighting teams had to wear oxygen masks to gain access to the first floor, he said.

The building itself was located in a congested lane where fire tenders could not be deployed. Rescue teams had to climb the adjacent buildings to douse the flames.

Firefighters carry out rescue and relief work at the site of the blaze. Photo: PTI.

The first respondents to the distress calls by the two panicked women who woke up early were bangle seller Mir Zahed and his friends Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Ibrahim. They had stopped for tea at a nearby kiosk after morning prayers at a mosque.

Zahed said that with no way to go up the staircase, they had to break the shutter at the ground floor to climb up. They could bring out 13 persons in an unconscious state, but all of them died before reaching hospital.

He told mediapersons that he saw a heart-wrenching scene of a woman who fell while clutching her two children in a bid to save them from the fire. An even more horrific scene was that of parents pushing their children into charred cupboards to shield them from the fire.

Eleven fire tenders from different parts of the city and 70 personnel who were pressed into service battled the flames and smoke for two hours.

As crowds milled in the busy road, the police closed it for traffic. VIPs, including Union coal and mines minister G. Kishan Reddy, the state government’s minister-in-charge for Hyderabad Ponnam Prabhakar, and Hyderabad MP as well as All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi, reached the spot to aid the rescue operation.

A young child, who was injured by the fire, is carried by a rescuer to an ambulance. Photo: AP/PTI.

Owaisi noted that the family had been living in the building for over a century and that it carried out an ancestral business.

The family had recently performed a housewarming ceremony of its residence at Attapur but was waiting for some pending interior designing work to be completed.

As the children were on summer vacation, Prahlad Modi had invited his two daughters Rajini Agrawal (47) and Sheetal Jain (37) to his house. All of them as well as Prahlad Modi's son Pankaj Modi, his wife and three children died.

Their bodies were cremated amidst strict security at the Puranpul crematorium in the evening.

The participants in the last rites poured out their anger at the fire service for allegedly delaying rescue works.

A pall of gloom descended at the crematorium as the crowd bid a quiet and tearful adieu to the victims.

Hyderabad collector Anudeep Durishetty was present.

President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguish and sorrow at the incident. The latter announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims. The Telangana government also announced an assistance of Rs 5 lakh each.

Chief minister Revanth Reddy was in constant touch with deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and other ministers who visited the site and hospitals to coordinate relief. All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge also spoke to Reddy.

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