“Fire located at rear end of building”: Eyewitness on Hyderabad Gulzar Houz fire

Hyderabad (Telangana): An eyewitness to the fire that broke out at a building at Gulzar Houz in Hyderabad early on Sunday morning, in which 17 people, including eight children, were killed, said that the blaze was at the rear end of the building.

The eyewitness, Zahid, also detailed the efforts of local people to save the people stuck in the building.

“We could not enter the building through the main gate as it was engulfed in flames, so we broke the shutter to go inside. Then, five to six of us broke through a wall and entered the first floor. But the whole place was engulfed in flames. The police and fire tenders did good work and cooperated fully. But we could not save the people because of the massive fire,” he said.

“The fire was mainly located at the back of the Houz, and there was no back door to get to that. All the deceased were from the same family. Yes, the fire tenders were a bit late, but the fire was too massive to enter the first floor,” he added.

A fire department official said on Sunday that a preliminary examination of the blaze indicated that a short circuit led to the massive blaze.

The cause of death of all the 17 people was smoke inhalation, “nobody had burn injuries,” Telangana Disaster Response and Fire Services DG Y Nagi Reddy said.

The list of the 17 deceased released by the Telangana Fire Disaster Response Emergency and Civil Defence includes the names of eight children under the age of 10.

The youngest in the list was identified as one Prathan (1.5 years old). The seven other children have been identified as Hamey (7), Priyansh (4), Iraaj (2), Arushi (3), Rishabh (4), Anuyan (3) and Iddu (4).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he was “deeply anguished” by the loss of lives in the fire and announced an ex gratia, of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 50,000 to those injured in the mishap, from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to the kin of the deceased as per the Prime Minister’s Office.