Toll in Hyderabad apartment building fire rises to 10, building owner held

After a 17-year-old succumbed to his injuries, the toll in a major fire in a residential building in the Nampally area in Hyderabad on November 13 rose to 10, police said on Saturday (November 18).

On November 13 morning, a massive fire broke out in the Nampally’s Bazaar Guard area, killing nine persons in a four-storey residential building in the state capital.

Ten people were found in an unconscious state in different floors of the apartment complex, which has ground and four upper floors and as smoke quickly engulfed the stairwell of the only available staircase, the inmates in the upper floors were not able to climb down and got trapped in smoke and fire which caused deaths, police and fire department officials had earlier said.

Nine people belonging to two families were killed in the incident while the 17-year-old, who suffered over 70 percent burns was admitted to a state-run hospital where he died on Friday evening (November 17), they said.

The officials said due to a “short circuit” the fire broke out initially in the stilt floor of the building, where chemicals in plastic drums and other flammable materials were stored in an unauthorised manner, before spreading to all upper floors vertically.

Meanwhile, the owner of the building, who had participated in the rescue efforts and was hospitalised after “inhaling smoke”, was taken into custody after he was discharged from the hospital on Friday (November 17), a police official said.

A case was registered at the Nampally Police Station against the building owner after a complaint was lodged in which he was accused of “illegally” storing the chemical drums and other flammable materials in the stilt area that caught fire.

A total of 21 people, who were trapped on different floors of the building as thick smoke enveloped it, along with the flames, were rescued through staircase and extension ladders from the windows by the fire personnel.

(With agency inputs)