Hyderabad: At least 11 people were killed in the wee hours of Wednesday after a massive fire broke out at a scrap godown in Hyderabad’s Bhoiguda, the Hyderabad police said. The deceased were migrant workers from Bihar. According to the Gandhi Nagar Station House Officer (SHO) Mohan Rao, out of the 12 people present at the scarp warehouse, one person survived.
Police said that twelve migrant workers from Bihar were sleeping in a room on the first floor of the two-storey building, located in a crowded area of Secunderabad’s Bhoiguda when the fire erupted at around 3 am.
While one worker escaped the fire by jumping out of the room, eleven workers lost their lives. There was only one internal spiral staircase in the building, The workers appeared to have tried to escape but soon fell unconscious after inhaling the thick smoke.
It is suspected that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the godown.
“The only way for the workers to get out was through the scrap shop in the ground floor whose shutter was closed,” M Rajesh Chandra, Deputy Commissioner of Police of the central zone, said.
The local fire control room reportedly received an alert about the blaze around 3 am, and nine fire tenders were deployed at the spot. The fire was doused around 7 am.
V Papaiah, a regional fire officer, said that empty liquor bottles, paper, plastic and cable wires were found at the warehouse. “There were two rooms on the first floor and all the 11 bodies were recovered from one room lying on top of one another,” he said. “The bodies were charred beyond recognition.”
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the 11 labourers who were charred to death at a scrap shop in Hyderabad`s Bhoiguda area.
Rao expressed shock over the incident and expressed sorrow over the death of migrant workers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also announced that an ex-gratia amount of Rs 2 lakh each will be paid to the kin of the victims from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.