Five people, including two young children and an elderly woman, died of suspected asphyxiation after a fire broke out in a four-storey building housing a furniture showroom in Hyderabad’s Nampally area, officials said on Sunday.
The fire erupted on Saturday, triggering a large-scale rescue operation as emergency responders tried to reach five people believed to be trapped in the basement of the building. By Sunday, all five bodies were recovered from different parts of the cellar.
“We got information that five people were missing. We were able to retrieve all the five bodies, including those of two boys and an elderly woman from different places within the cellar of the building on Sunday,” a senior police official told PTI.
The deceased included two boys aged seven and 11, sons of the building’s security guard, and a 60-year-old woman who worked as a sweeper-cum-security staffer.
Two other victims were men in their 30s, workers at the building and residents of Hyderabad.
According to officials, the two workers attempted to rescue the children and the elderly woman after the fire broke out.
“They (two workers) rushed inside to save them (the children and the woman) but as flames became so huge that they were unable to come out and got stuck,” officials said.
The children lived in the basement with their family. Their father, a security guard from Nalgonda district in Telangana, was away at the time of the fire, while their mother had stepped out for work, officials said.
The elderly woman, a native of Kalaburagi district in neighbouring Karnataka, stayed in another room in the basement.
Telangana revenue minister P. Srinivas Reddy announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the families of each of the deceased. Expressing grief, he said a thorough investigation would be conducted and steps would be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.
The fire department pointed to serious violations of safety norms at the site.
Telangana Fire, Disaster Response, Emergency and Civil Defence Department director general Vikram Singh Mann told PTI on Sunday that the basement was illegally used for storage and residential purposes.
Furniture, chemicals, plastics, rexine, cloth and foam mattresses were stored in the two basements, Mann said, adding that families were also housed there even though cellars are meant only for parking.
The victims are suspected to have died of asphyxiation due to heavy smoke from the materials stored in the basement. The furniture showroom owner had “illegally” dumped furniture and raw materials in the cellar, Mann said, though he added that the exact cause of death would be confirmed after post-mortem examinations.
On the possible cause of the fire, Mann said it could have been due to an electrical short-circuit, or cooking gas used by the family living in the basement, but stressed that these were subject to detailed investigation.
Emergency services received the first call at 1.41 pm on Saturday. Multiple agencies, including police, fire services, NDRF personnel and the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), were deployed for the rescue effort.
Although the fire was eventually brought under control, thick smoke hampered operations. Access to the basement was blocked by furniture and raw materials, making it difficult for rescue teams to enter, officials said.
Fire tenders, a skylift and a firefighting robot were used during the operation. Police said a case has been registered against the showroom owner.