A day after eight people were killed and seven were injured in a massive fire that broke out at an electronic vehicle (EV) showroom, and spread to the Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel in Secunderabad, Telangana, police registered a case on Tuesday, 13 September, against the owner of the building and the lodge where the fire broke out.
Chandana Deepthi, DCP, North Zone, Hyderabad, said that a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against the owners of the Electric Scooter showroom and the manager of the lodge.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh for the families of those who died in the incident and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao, expressing grief over the incident, in a statement said the state government will offer Rs 3 lakh as ex-gratia to the families of the deceased.
Rescue operations went on till early morning on Tuesday, in which the police and fire fighters rescued 15 people.
Fire Services and Police personnel at the site after a fire broke out in an electric bike showroom on Monday, in Secundrabad, Tuesday, 13 September.
(Photo: PTI)
Cause of Death
Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand who visited the spot told reporters, "It appears there are 23 rooms in all the four floors in the hotel. The smoke traversed through the staircase from the bottom up to the top floor and completely engulfed all floors."
He added, "Some people who were sleeping in the first and second floors came to the corridor through the thick smoke and died due to asphyxiation."
Telangana Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali visited the hotel on Tuesday.
"The ground floor of the building was an electronic vehicle (EV) showroom. There were electronic vehicles parked in the basement for charging. The fire seems to have arisen from here," DCP North Zone, Chandana Deepthi told The Quint.
Hyderabad Police and members of their Clues team at the site after a fire broke out in an electric bike showroom on Monday, in Secundrabad, Tuesday, 13 September.
(Photo: PTI)
She added that the owner did not have permission to park or charge the electronic vehicles in the basement of the building.
She added, "The fire is believed to have started there. Probe is on."
Probe Underway
People who were lodged on the first and the second floors of the building got suffocated as smoke from the fire rose, DCP Deepthi said.
"Very unfortunate incident. Fire brigade teams tried their best to rescue people from the lodge but due to heavy smoke, some people died. Some people were rescued from the lodge. We are probing how the incident happened," Telangana Home Minister Mohd Mahmood Ali told reporters.
Fire Department DG Sanjay Jain told The New Indian Express that two fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the fire broke out at 9:20 pm. The injured were rushed to the Gandhi Hospital and Yashoda Hospital.
The building has fire sprinklers but they did not function at the time, he added. There were also no emergency exits in the building, which forced some of the guests to jump from the windows, according to the report.
(With inputs from ANI and The New Indian Express.)
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