3 feared dead, burnt to ashes in Deccan Nightwear building fire in Secunderabad

SECUNDERABAD: Three persons working at the ill-fated building that was gutted in a fire accident on Thursday remain missing on Friday, amid fears that they were burnt to death and reduced to ashes.

A massive fire broke out in Deccan Nightwear, a sports store, located at Nallagutta under the Ramgopalpet Police Station limits on Thursday morning. Close to 20 fire-tenders were pressed into service as fire personnel battled relentlessly with the leaping flames from morning till 8 pm on Thursday to put out the fire.

The huge fire that remained uncontrollable for many hours, even spread to four other adjacent buildings. From the building where the fire originally broke out, the fire department personnel were able to rescue at least seven persons trapped inside. But due to the intensity of fire and thick smoke billowing out of the building, they could not rescue three others, Wasim, Junaid and Zaheer. Since there was no trace of the three since the mishap, they are feared dead, probably asphyxiated to death before their bodies were burnt and reduced to ashes.

No electric short circuit

Sridhar, an official of the Telangana electricity department, clarified that the fire accident was not caused by an electric short circuit, as was being speculated in a section of the media. He reasoned that, had there been an electric short circuit, the power supply line in the sub-station would have tripped, which he said did not happen.

He clarified that the power supply to the area was snapped as soon as they were informed of the fire accident at 11:30 am on Thursday. It was however restored for the neighbourhood at 6:30 pm, he added.

He also said that electric wires and meters in the building were not burnt, something that happens in the event of a short circuit. Stating that there are about six electric meters in the building and that the exact cause for the mishap would be established after a thorough investigation.