Hyderabad: 11 die in scrap godown inferno

Hyderabad: The ghastly fire incident in a scrap godown in Bhoiguda which claimed 11 lives exposed the government's apathy in taking long-term measures to contain such incidents though the city had witnessed several major fire accidents in the recent past. According to Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali, so far there was no long-term policy.

"Now the government would enforce some implementable measures to minimise such incidents," he said. After visiting the site of the ghastly incident, the minister said that special teams of the Fire Services department will conduct a survey in the GHMC limits to assess how many such commercial establishments/ godowns exist which do not have Fire NOCs and are vulnerable to fire hazards.

Instructions would be given to them to take all necessary fire safety measures, he said.

Henceforth, he said owners of such commercial establishments or godowns will have to provide workers with a separate place to sleep and they would not be allowed to cook or smoke within the premises.

Referring to Wednesday's incident, he said only one person, Prem Kumar, could escape from the inferno and was undergoing treatment in a hospital.

The victims were, Sikandar, Bittu, Satyender, Gollu, Damodar, Chintu, Rajesh, Deepak, Pankaj, Dinesh and Rajesh. All the deceased were natives of Bihar and were migrants working at the scrap godown and segregation unit.

V Papaiah, Regional Fire Officer, said, "All the persons who died were working at the godown for the four years and were sleeping in the makeshift attic. The scrap materials were placed on the ground floor.

The fire brigade got a call at around 3.55 am and immediately 10 fire tenders from the nearby fire station were sent to the spot. The fire personnel faced problems as there was only one entrance through a big shutter to enter the premises.

The victims, who were asleep when the fire broke, must have tried to escape by rushing into a room on the first floor as the exit was blocked and raging with fire. They got charred beyond recognition, Papaiah told The Hans India.

"Fibre cable wire was stored below the slab on the ground floor while the remaining portion was filled with empty liquor bottles, paper and plastic bottles," Papaiah said.

The workers cooked food in a room on the first floor. An LPG cylinder was also kept for the purpose. Prima facie, it is suspected that the fire would have been caused due to electrical short circuit.

The police said the injured person was moved to hospital for treatment while the bodies were shifted to the Gandhi Hospital mortuary. A case has been booked against the owner of the godown. Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand said, "It is really a tragic incident. The deceased have been identified with the help of their friends and Aadhaar cards. The bodies will be flown to Bihar on Thursday morning."